President Lai Ching-te continues to call for more purchases of U.S. natural gas and oil as Taipei looks to negotiate a zero-tariff regime with Washington. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund has slashed its global outlook, but raised Taiwan's individual GDP forecast to 2.9%.
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00:00Two weeks into U.S. President Donald Trump's 90-day grace period, pausing steep tariffs,
00:06Taiwan's economy minister J.W. Guo says the country is still working out the best way to buy American natural gas,
00:15a deal that could help narrow its large trade surplus with the U.S. that Trump has criticized.
00:30In fact, I think the amount of time we can produce, the amount of time we can produce, the amount of time we can produce, the amount of time we can produce, the amount of time we can produce, the amount of time we can produce.
00:43President Lai Qingde has been doubling down on importing more U.S. natural gas and oil, which he says is a major issue in Taiwan's tariff negotiations with Washington.
00:54Lai is seeking to lower the U.S.'s so-called reciprocal tariff on most Taiwanese goods from 32 percent to zero.
01:04Even before Trump's sweeping tariff announcement, Lai expressed interest in a 44 billion U.S. dollar Alaskan natural gas pipeline,
01:14appearing with Alaskan Governor Mike Dunleavy at a recent business dinner in Taipei.
01:19Alaska is the source of high-quality industrial gas, and it's relatively short distance from Taiwan and facilitates transportation.
01:29Without official diplomatic ties with the U.S. or a free trade agreement, Taiwan has limited tools for negotiations.
01:38Our administration right now, at least they genuinely want to talk with the Trump administration.
01:46So that's the reason why you see, like, when Trump holding the following of press conferences,
01:52Taiwan is no longer being mentioned anymore.
01:54Like, if you ask me, like, the strategy works or not, I don't know, you know, like,
01:58but I think at least this is a good start to talk to each other.
02:02The world economy has been reeling from Trump's tariff plans, the International Monetary Fund slashing its outlook,
02:09projecting global growth in 2025 will slow to 2.8 percent from 3.3 percent last year,
02:17the lowest rate since the COVID-19 pandemic.
02:21Despite that, the IMF has raised Taiwan's individual 2025 forecast, predicting its GDP will grow 2.9 percent,
02:31beating out others in the region like Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
02:36If you compare with the other emerging markets, inflation rate last year, Taiwan's inflation rate is actually smaller.
02:45So we are, our central bank did a good job.
02:49Secondly, it's the relative exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the new Taiwan dollar.
02:55It's relatively stable, you know, like, because we could see from, like, the U.S. dollar to the Japanese yen,
03:03U.S. dollar to the British pound in Europe, U.S. dollars actually are weakening.
03:08Despite a relatively stable domestic market, economists say the ultimate trade shock
03:14caused by Trump's still-evolving economic policy is far from clear.
03:19Pressure still on Taiwan to strike a good deal with the U.S. before the 90 days are up.
03:26Howard Zhang, Joseph Wu and Joyce Sen for Taiwan Plus.