“What’s natural for Taiwan is we produce 95 percent” and “we feel great about it,” Lutnick said, conceding that “you can imagine when someone has 95 percent, convincing them that they should only have 50 percent. That’s a lot” to lose.
But “Donald Trump would say it’s not healthy for you or healthy for us because we protect you, and for us to protect you,” then “you need to help us achieve… reasonable self-sufficiency,” Lutnick argued.
To close the deal with Taiwan, Lutnick suggested that the US would offer “some kind of security guarantee” so that “they can expect” that moving their supply chain into the US won’t eliminate Taiwan’s so-called “silicon shield,” where countries like the US are willing to protect Taiwan because “we need their silicon, their chips, so badly.”
According to Lutnick, Taiwan can also be assured through the deal that the US will remain “fundamentally reliant” upon Taiwan, as the producer of the other 50 percent of chips.
However, he also claimed that if the US acquired 50 percent market share, it would ensure that the US has “the semiconductors we need for American consumption,” emphasizing that the move is intended to decrease reliance on Taiwan. Lutnick also went on in the interview to explain how US workers would benefit from moving Taiwan’s supply chain into the US, saying that another major focus of his time in office will be training workers to help the domestic semiconductor industry flourish.
“I think it will shock everybody how successful we are,” Lutnick said.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), along with “its giant ecosystem of suppliers,” Bloomberg noted, “together make and supply the vast majority of the world’s most advanced chips.”
Earlier this year, TSMC committed to investing $100 billion in chip manufacturing plants in the US in an effort to appease Trump. Production of its most advanced chips remained in Taiwan, however, as TSMC has for years claimed that talent in the US is insufficient, bringing in overseas workers and fueling tensions with US workers, who accusing TSMC of undercutting US unions.
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