Taiwan will try to hold discussions with the United States on President Donald Trump’s proposal to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, before considering other action if necessary, a trade official said. John Deng, Taiwan’s top trade negotiator, said it was still unclear which countries would be targeted under Trump’s recent proposal to implement tariffs of 25 percent on imports of steel and 10 percent on aluminum. In 2017, the U.S. imported US$3.622 billion worth of steel products from Taiwan, which accounted for 5.61 percent of its total steel import value, according to its Customs statistics. U.S. imports of aluminum from Taiwan totaled US$57.12 million in 2017, 0.33 percent of the total import value, the data showed. With the U.S. risking starting a trade war with China, Taiwan should pay heed to the possible repercussions, Liu said yesterday.

Source: GNN Liberia March 05, 2018 07:18 UTC