Relief from expected U.S. tariffs is on the way as lawmakers pass a special budget. But while all parties agree on the need for some kind of action, there are sharp partisan differences over what the budget should have looked like.
00:00It's taken a few months to get here, but Taiwan now has a final plan to weather U.S. tariffs.
00:10The legislature, with Speaker Han Guo Yu presiding, has passed a special budget with a ceiling of 18.6 billion U.S. dollars to keep the country ticking.
00:19But while all three major parties back the idea of tariff relief, each had its own vision, and not everyone got what they wanted.
00:30Premier Zhou Rongtai is one of the disappointed ones.
00:33Despite pleas, this budget did not include a key plank his ruling Democratic Progressive Party envisioned,
00:39around 3 billion U.S. dollars to prop up Taiwan's loss-making state power company.
00:44Instead, the budget includes an item his party had fought to block, a cash handout of around 340 U.S. dollars for everyone in the country.
00:53The DPP worries this will raise debt and cause inflation.
00:56And the party views the budget that did pass, the opposition Kuomintang version, with cynical suspicion.
01:03In their view, this is an attempt to buy off voters just weeks ahead of a sweeping recall vote
01:07that could decimate the Kuomintang caucus and see the majority in the legislature change hands.
01:13But the two opposition parties are content, even if they had different ideas about just how much cash to give out per person.
01:31The smaller Taiwan People's Party feels this budget's about doing right by taxpayers.
01:35But there is still a chance for some compromise, at least where funding the state power company is concerned.
01:57The Kuomintang says it wants to deal with that issue separately.
02:00We need to ask for the president to the legislature to the legislature to the legislature to determine if they can't increase the price of China's loss-making state power company.
02:09And if the state power company needs to do a full-time review, then we can decide how to use the government's money-making state power company.
02:18With the budget passed, now all sides will be waiting to see just how big a U.S. tariff Taiwan may face,
02:24and whether this 18 billion U.S. dollars will be enough to keep Taiwan's businesses and public afloat.
02:31Andy Xie and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.
