Taiwan-U.S. tariff talks still ongoing: Economics minister

Taipei, July 7 (CNA) Minister of Economic Affairs Kuo Jyh-huei (郭智輝) offered no new updates Monday in Taipei on the ongoing talks with the United States over the provisional 32-percent tariffs on Taiwanese goods, which could take effect in less than a month.

"The negotiation is still under way," Kuo told reporters at the Legislative Yuan, after being asked whether he was optimistic about the trade negotiation, with the 90-day pause in U.S. President Donald Trump's "reciprocal tariffs" set expire this week.

A few days after Trump announced sweeping import duties on trading partners in early April, the U.S. president decided to pause the measure for 90 days and introduced a 10-percent baseline duty instead.

The 90-day suspension is set to expire on Wednesday (U.S. time), and the Associated Press reported overnight that "the negotiating window until July 9 has led to announced deals only with the United Kingdom and Vietnam."

When asked about what will happen on Wednesday during an interview with CNN on Sunday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that "I'm not going to give away the playbook because we're going to be very busy over the next 72 hours."

"President Trump's going to be sending letter to some of our trading partners saying that if you don't move things along, then on Aug. 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level," Bessent said.

"So, I think we're going to see a lot of deals quickly," the treasury secretary said.

In Taipei, during a news conference at the Legislature Monday, lawmaker Szu-yao (吳思瑤) of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party urged against speculation ahead of the tariff talks deadline.

Wu said the government will definitely protect Taiwanese people's rights, while noting the resilience of the country's high-tech industries and small and medium-sized enterprises.

On Friday, the Taiwan Labor Action Coalition in Response to Tariff Impact, founded on June 17 by members of about 70 labor groups in Taiwan, criticized the government for insisting on "closed-door negotiations."

It slammed the government for refusing to engage in any substantive communications or concrete discussions with labor groups during the negotiating process, the group said during a press conference held in Taipei.