Taiwan

The other direction

What America sells to Taiwan

$54.8B in 2025 — a trade rupture cuts both ways, for American producers as well as American prices.

Policy in motion

Tariff status: a moving target

U.S. tariff policy toward Taiwan has changed 5 times since 2025. This page tracks it.

1. 2026-02-24

   IEEPA reciprocal tariffs terminated — replaced by 10% Section 122

   In effect

   Executive Order 14389 (Ending Certain Tariff Actions) terminated the IEEPA tariff duties effective February 24, 2026, replacing the reciprocal regime with a 10% Section 122 temporary import surcharge under Proclamation 11012 (capped at 150 days) — stalling the just-signed 15% Taiwan agreement pending a non-IEEPA implementation path.

   91 FR 9437 →

2. 2026-02-12

   U.S.-Taiwan Agreement on Reciprocal Trade signed

   Agreement

   Formalizing a January 15, 2026 MOU, the U.S. and Taiwan signed an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade setting a 15% all-in tariff (inclusive of MFN), most-favorable Section 232 treatment for semiconductors, and MFN-only treatment for ~2,072 items (~20% of exports), in exchange for Taiwan reducing or eliminating 99% of its tariff barriers.

   Source ↗

3. 2025-08-07

   Provisional 20% reciprocal rate takes effect

   In effect

   Executive Order 14326 set the post-pause Annex I reciprocal rates; Taiwan's rate was set at a provisional 20% effective for goods entered on or after August 7, 2025 — which Taiwanese officials characterized as temporary while negotiations continued for a lower rate.

   90 FR 37963 →

4. 2025-04-10

   Elevated reciprocal rates paused to 10% for 90 days

   In effect

   Executive Order 14266 suspended the higher country-specific reciprocal rates — including Taiwan's 32% — back to the 10% baseline for 90 days to allow negotiations.

   90 FR 15625 →

5. 2025-04-05

   Reciprocal tariff regime begins — Taiwan assigned 32%

   In effect

   Executive Order 14257 imposed a 10% universal reciprocal duty effective April 5 and a higher country-specific rate of 32% for Taiwan scheduled to take effect April 9 under Annex I, with semiconductors temporarily exempted pending a separate Section 232 investigation.

   90 FR 15041 →

Reference

The country itself

East N Southeast Asia · Geography, people, economy, and government — public-domain data from the CIA World Factbook.

First inhabited by Austronesian people, Taiwan became home to Han immigrants beginning in the late Ming Dynasty (17th century). In 1895, military defeat forced China's Qing Dynasty to cede Taiwan to Japan, which then governed Taiwan for 50 years. Taiwan came under Chinese Nationalist (Kuomintang, KMT) control after World War II. With the communist victory in the Chinese civil war in 1949, the Nationalist-controlled Republic of China government and 2 million Nationalists fled to Taiwan and continued to claim to be the legitimate government for mainland China and Taiwan, based on a 1947 constitution drawn up for all of China. Until 1987, however, the Nationalist Government ruled Taiwan under a civil war martial law declaration dating to 1948. Beginning in the 1970s, Nationalist authorities gradually began to incorporate the native population into the governing structure beyond the local level. The democratization process expanded rapidly in the 1980s, leading to the then-illegal founding of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Taiwan’s first opposition party, in 1986 and the lifting of martial law the following year. Taiwan held legislative elections in 1992, the first in over 40 years, and its first direct presidential election in 1996. In the 2000 presidential elections, Taiwan underwent its first peaceful transfer of power with the KMT loss to the DPP and afterwards experienced two additional democratic transfers of power in 2008 and 2016. Throughout this period, the island prospered and turned into one of East Asia's economic "Tigers," becoming a major investor in mainland China after 2000 as cross-Strait ties matured. The dominant political issues continue to be economic reform and growth, as well as management of sensitive relations between Taiwan and China.