Taiwan should cooperate with U.S. amid chip tariff threat: Ex-TSMC exec

Taipei, Feb. 10 (CNA) If the United States imposes tariffs on semiconductors made in Taiwan, Taiwan should work actively to strengthen industrial cooperation with the U.S., according to an industry expert.

Yang Guang-lei (楊光磊), former director of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s (TSMC) R&D Division and former senior technical advisor to Intel, said Taiwan should consider how to build on its edge in semiconductor manufacturing and combine it with the U.S.'s strengths in innovation and applications to address the threat.

On Jan. 27, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that the U.S. should impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on Taiwan-made semiconductors, without providing any further details.

Trump may be hoping that tariffs will encourage overseas companies to invest in the U.S., a method he tried in his first term, but it was actually President Joe Biden's approach of combining financial incentives and geopolitical pressure that got TSMC to commit to building three advanced wafer fabs in Arizona.

If Trump sees the semiconductor tariff policy through, it will affect companies in both Taiwan and the U.S., Yang said.

The prices of Taiwan-made semiconductors will be much higher in the U.S., weakening the competitiveness of Taiwanese vendors in the U.S. market and providing competitors such as Samsung and China with a chance to grab market share, Yang said.

Yet given that Taiwan has an extremely high share of the U.S. semiconductor market, any supply disruption could have an adverse effect on American companies, Yang said.

Given those conditions and Trump's ostensible desire to use tariffs to bring manufacturing back to the United States, Taiwan should rethink its role in the global semiconductor market, Yang suggested.

He argued that Taiwan should actively seek cooperation with the U.S. to jointly meet the challenges of global technology competition, including the possibility of transferring technology to the U.S. and sharing its 30 years of experience in semiconductor manufacturing.

The two sides could cooperate in areas of common development, such as integrating AI into semiconductor manufacturing, the manufacturing of military goods, and other niche market areas, Yang said.

Through cooperation, the U.S. could gradually expand its manufacturing capabilities, while Taiwan could maintain its global advantage by maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship with the U.S., Yang said.

One example he cited was a partnership between Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) and Intel in 2024 in which the two collaborated on a 12-inch wafer platform that combined the U.S. company's sizable capacity with UMC's mature process wafer production experience.

Efforts to develop such areas of collaboration could help Taiwan maintain its competitive advantage in the global semiconductor market while deepening its long-term partnership with the U.S., Yang said.