KMT lawmakers urge clarity on U.S. tariff agreement ahead of Premier's report

Taipei, March 1 (CNA) Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers on Sunday called on the government to clarify whether the trade agreement signed with the United States last month remains valid and to spell out relief measures for affected industries ahead of Premier Cho Jung-tai's (卓榮泰) scheduled report to the Legislative Yuan on March 3.

KMT lawmaker Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said the government should "explain clearly" whether the agreement is still in effect, saying that "at present everything is very chaotic."

Wang was referring to uncertainty stemming from the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were invalid.

It is not immediately clear how the U.S.-Taiwan Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART), which Taiwan signed in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 12, is affected by this development or how it relates to a global 10 percent tariff based on the 1974 U.S. Trade Act announced by the Trump administration after the Supreme Court's ruling.

Trump has also said he plans to raise the global tariff rate to 15 percent, but has yet to issue a formal directive to do so.

Given the broad scope of the U.S.-Taiwan tariff agreement, Wang said the government should explain whether it plans to hold public hearings so that "more industries can understand the situation."

KMT lawmaker Huang Chien-hao (黃健豪) questioned how the government intends to compensate small and medium-sized enterprises that are most heavily impacted.

Huang said that, although the government often emphasizes that exports to the United States are mainly high-tech industries, most workers are employed in small and medium-sized enterprises, and the government must "clearly explain" its response.

Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄), Legislative Yuan caucus director-general of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said he believes the March 3 special report will allow lawmakers and parties to better understand tariff-related issues all at once.

After what he described as the signing of "a U.S.-Taiwan tariff agreement satisfactory to the public," Chuang said he hopes opposition parties will not "emotionally oppose for the sake of opposition."

"No public hearing is better than undertaking complete questioning in the Legislature to better understand the content of the U.S.-Taiwan tariff agreement," he added.

Premier Cho is scheduled to deliver the special report on the results and impact of U.S.-Taiwan tariff negotiations on March 3, under a cross-party consensus reached on Jan. 28.