00:00The United States may require that for every chip imported from Taiwan, one chip be produced
00:05in the U.S. as part of a broader trade deal with Taipei, according to U.S. Commerce Secretary
00:11Howard Lutnick in a recent interview.
00:13It comes as Taipei and Washington negotiate a deal to lower the 20% tariff on most Taiwanese
00:19goods and avoid special semiconductor tariffs.
00:22Lutnick says he's given Taiwan a proposal on chip production, saying, quote,
00:26The idea that I pitched them was, let's get to 50-50. We're producing half and you're
00:31producing half. We're still fundamentally reliant upon you because we can't live without the
00:35other half. But if we have half, we have the capacity to do what we need to do if we need
00:40to do it.
00:41And he goes on to say, regarding Taiwan making most of the world's chips, quote, Donald Trump
00:45would say it's not healthy for you or healthy for us because we protect you. And for us
00:50to protect you, you need to help us achieve reasonable self-sufficiency.
00:55The White House has so far not responded to requests for comment. Taiwan's Office of Trade
00:59negotiations declined to comment.
01:01Some lawmakers from the opposition KMT have criticized Lutnick's proposal, saying it would
01:06forcibly split production of Taiwan's most critical industry.
01:10Getting anywhere near 50-50 chip production would take time and lots of money. Taiwan's
01:15chip giant TSMC has already committed 165 billion U.S. dollars to its U.S. build-out in Arizona,
01:21the largest foreign investment in U.S. history. And it says about 30 percent of its 2 nanometer
01:26capacity will eventually be in Arizona once all sites are built, far from half of all chips.
01:33Neither Taipei nor Washington has made an official statement on a deal, so things could still change.
01:38And we'll be watching for critical developments. Alex Chun and Chris Gorin in Taipei for Taiwan
01:42Plus.
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