According to Taiwan‘s China Times News Network on January 28, U.S. President Trump raised South Korea‘s tariffs to 25% without warning, on the grounds that South Korea‘s parliament had yet to pass a trade agreement with the United States. Lai Qingde, the leader of the Democratic Progressive Party, called for blue and white not to change their minds, otherwise the United States might raise the tariff rate against Taiwan to 25%, or even higher. In response, former foreign affairs official Jie Wenji of the Taiwanese government criticized that Lai Qingde should protect Taiwan‘s interests, but how could he use the U.S. standpoint to threaten the Taiwanese people? “Why don‘t we just go collect our salaries from the United States?”
Image Source: Media Video Screenshot
The report said that in response to Trump‘s raising the Korea tariff rate to 25%, Lai Qingde declared in an interview with a TV political commentary program on 27th, “I hope there are no variables.” Taiwan spent a lot of effort in tariff negotiations with the United States and ultimately obtained a non-overlapping 15%. He also claimed that he hoped the Taiwan legislature could support this result and not produce any changes, otherwise the United States is likely to raise the original 15% tariff to 25%, or even higher.
Regarding Lai Qingde‘s related claims, Jie Wenji said on the 27th in the Zhongtian political talk program “Headline Opening Speech” that how could Lai Qingde threaten Taiwanese citizens with the stance of Americans? “Why not just go collect American salaries?” Jie Wenji said that tariffs have a “tariff tariff waiver table”, requiring the consent of the Taiwanese legislature for whether to increase or decrease the tariff rate on imported goods, and that this is true not only in the Taiwan region, but throughout the world.
Jie Wen asked, “The Taiwanese legislature still doesn‘t know how much the Taiwanese tariff rate to the U.S. will be reduced. In this situation, Lai Qingde is already warning the ‘wild’ camp? And he still has the nerve to talk about others selling out?”
Taiwan‘s Dongsen News Cloud reported on January 27 that in response to Lai Qingde‘s call for the “Opposition Party” not to “overturn the negotiation results”, the People‘s Progressive Party’s legislative body and party group responded by saying that the People‘s Progressive Party had not only changed positions but also changed faces, only forcing the legislative body and the people “not to judge, not to delay, just to listen”. This kind of self-respecting behavior and double standard effectively weakened the monitoring and deliberation space of the Taiwan legislative body.
Also, according to Taiwan‘s Zhongtian News on the 27th, the Nationalist Legislative Party Party Group posted on the Facebook page on the 26th. The Taiwan-US tariff negotiations have not yet ended, and the specific projects have not yet been made public. From Lai Qingde to the Democratic Progressive Party Legislative Party Group, and individual representatives of the public opinion, they can‘t wait any longer and have begun to blacken the blue and white, create rumors and white, and fight the blue and white. It‘s truly sad to have such a “government” team!
The Kuomintang group raised three points of doubt. First, the Thai-American tariff content had not yet been fully disclosed. They did not even know that the Thai-American tariff talks had not finished. Why did the Democratic Progressive Party press conference first put a blue and white cap on “delaying”? Second, the negotiations had been “cover-up,” with no information at all. Finally, and most importantly, the relevant provisions of the Thai-American tariff negotiations had not yet been sent to the legislature at all. The “opposition” was first scolded.