Although U.S. President Donald Trump is set to implement reciprocal tariffs on April 2, reports suggest that specific industries, including semiconductors, may be exempt.     

Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at Taiwan’s Institute of Economic Research (TIER), says that Taiwan's semiconductor trade surplus stands at NT$1.84 trillion (US$5.57 billion), but exports to the U.S. account for only NT$86.9 billion (US$2.63 billion). She says the reason for this is that these products undergo further processing before reaching their final destinations. She adds that should the U.S. impose tariffs on Taiwanese chips, how it calculates the tariffs will be a key factor.