00:00President Lai Qingda is praising the new U.S.-Taiwan trade deal,
00:04hailing it as a major victory for Taipei.
00:10Speaking at the Commonwealth Economic Forum,
00:12Lai addressed the deal for the first time since tariff negotiations with Washington ended.
00:17He praised Taiwan's trade negotiators,
00:19saying the deal puts Taiwan on a level playing field with Japan,
00:23South Korea, and the European Union.
00:30The U.S. agreed to lower tariffs on Taiwanese goods from 20 to 15 percent.
00:43In exchange, Taiwan committed up to 500 billion U.S. dollars in investments for U.S.-based chip
00:49manufacturing, half through private investments and the rest through government-backed credit.
00:54But Taiwan's opposition parties have criticized the deal,
00:57saying it could hollow out Taiwan's chip industry by shifting production overseas.
01:02Lai, pushing back, says the deal is in line
01:05with Taiwanese company's global expansion strategy.
01:09He said,
01:09台積電 is not afraid to compete,
01:12only to be fair.
01:16Actually, everyone knows that Taiwan's companies are not afraid to compete.
01:19Taiwan's companies are not afraid to compete,
01:23only to be fair, only to be fair.
01:28Taiwanese chip giant TSMC has been generally supportive of the new agreement,
01:32saying its U.S. expansion is driven by customer demand,
01:35and that its most advanced manufacturing processes will remain in Taiwan.
01:40Traditional export industries, which may benefit from lower tariffs,
01:44have also supported the move.
01:46Now, the trade deal still needs to get legislative approval in Taiwan,
01:50so Lai's speech today is meant to get the opposition parties on board.
01:54Howard Zhang and Lily Lamatina in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.
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