For the young Taiwan exporters, uncertainty is like definitions

Since President Trump announced a wave of definitions around the world, Alex Tang has held morning talks with dozens of workers or so in the laboratory manufacturer in central Taiwan, and prepared them for the upcoming rocky times. It can hit his business, like all export -based manufacturers in Taiwan, can be severely affected.

Mr. Trump has stopped for 90 days on most of the Taiwan customs duties, a lot of the world, and some breathing space. Currently, Taiwan faces a 10 percent tariff for many of its products, and Mr. Trump is not 32 percent. The fact that China, the huge manufacturing competitor in Taiwan, has been hit by 145 percent definitions, may seem chance. But this could cause associations from Taiwan to Taiwan exporters.

Mr. Tangi said that Taiwan should be smart to deal with the era of new disruption in global trade, including the possibility that Mr. Trump will raise the definitions again. His business, AEGIS CNC, does not issue directly to the United States, but many customers of their micro -manufacturing tools are factories in Taiwan and Southeast Asia to do so.

Mr. Tang said in his workshop: “Some American merchants who buy Taiwan have been disabled, they asked their suppliers to put suspended orders,” while trying to know what may happen. “It is a burden, this is uncertain because of Trump.”

Within two days of interviews in Central Taiwan, explaining the manufacture of the island, the other business owners chanted this feeling: the definitions are one cost, and the uncertainty is another. They may face a set of competition from Chinese exporters, at a price outside the American market by definitions and searching for clients elsewhere. The Taiwan President, Lay Cheng T, visited the central city of Tikong on Friday to discuss the effects of definitions with manufacturers.

Taiwan is known for its semi -conductor plants, which makes the most advanced chips in the world. This was a tariff by Mr. Trump because of its importance to American technology companies. But Taiwan with some 23 million peopleIt also makes many consumer goods that store American stores – bicycles, auto parts, kitchen appliances, stationery and even Lacros sticks. It also makes many factory floor machines that create these products, either in Taiwan or anywhere else in Asia.

Many Taiwanese manufacturers are small and medium -sized companies, such as MR. Tang, which makes accuracy that cut, grind and dug blocks of minerals or other materials in the parts of the product.

“The Taiwanese companies have flourished by staying small and very economical, without debt,” said Alicia Garcia Herro, the Senior Economist in Asia Pacific in Natxis, an investment bank. “But often they were not homogeneous, and this is completely different from the Chinese mainland.”

The Taiwanese manufacturers said that the tariff of Mr. Trump was just a shock that they have been subjected to in recent years. Others included the crisis. Stressing growth in Europe, especially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; Perhaps above all, the increase in exports from China.

Most of them said they could deal with Mr. Trump’s tariff by 10 percent on Taiwan. Some have predicted the opportunity as American importers are looking for alternatives to China. But many people are concerned that the uncertainty and the wider prices resulting from the tariff of Mr. Trump may lead to a decrease in orders beyond the United States.

“It is like a hurricane,” said Catherine Yen, AEGIS CNC sales manager. She said that she had spent her days in an attempt to correct new orders in the Middle East and other places. “The eye of the hurricane is the immediate effect directly on exports to the United States, but in reality, there are also wider circles than that rotation around us – upstream and innovative bonds – this is the frightening thing.”

The American flag is flying alongside a Taiwanese person at Henry Yang Company in Tikong. The company exports plumbing products – valves, faucets, tubes – to the United States, an example of nearby bonds formed by many young Taiwanese exporters with American customers.

Mr. Yang said he was sympathetic to Mr. Trump’s goal to revive American manufacturing, but he asked about the period that the United States would take to recruit and train workers in advanced manufacturing jobs. He said that even in Taiwan, it was difficult to find young people ready to work in factories. (Many Taiwanese plants employs migrant workers from Southeast Asia.

“I think the manufacturer will definitely absorb some of them, and the importer will also be established,” said Mr. Yang about the customs tariff, which is 10 percent on many Taiwanese products. He said about Mr. Trump: “If I ask my personal view, I think he got his reasons for doing so, because the United States has been caught.”

Mr. Yang, 73, from Lukang, City Known for making plumbing products. He turned this background into business, filling out requests from the United States and other places by taking advantage of a wide network of spare parts manufacturers.

This formula has served Taiwan well. For decades, small and medium -sized manufacturing companies have challenged expectations that the largest Chinese competitors will overwhelm them. Instead, they learned to adapt, using their flexibility and networks to meet customer needs and develop confidence bonds with buyers abroad.

“Taiwan’s strength is to make small requests and a lot of options,” said Jack Lee, 7-Leaders Corp. “China in China may be attached to the knees and has a few companies that compete with us, but what if it was closed from the United States because of the definitions?”

Taiwan has about 144,000 small and medium -sized companies in its manufacturing sector, and it uses about two million workers, and they directly represent 12 percent of the exports manufactured on the island, according to L. Government statistics. But these companies often make parts of a larger Taiwanese exporters, hidden on the real scale of their contribution.

“Through very decentralized production and supply networks, they can provide many different customers. This has been a major source of their competitiveness,” said this main source of their competitiveness. Michelle HesseSociologist in the academic circles Sinika, a research academy, studying the role of small Taiwanese companies in Bike And other goods. “They often talk about providing very customer manufacturing service solutions.”

Taiwanese manufacturers who have markets in Europe and other places said that they are concerned that Chinese competitors will try more fierce to undermine them, and may help them government support. On the other hand, Samuel said that companies like him will seek new clients in the United States, where Mr. Trump’s tariff can put out often reach. The master is a president Astro TechIt is a central company in Taiwan that manufactures advanced electronic bikes and bicycle tires for retailers, most of them in Europe.

“For Taiwanese manufacturers, this is also an opportunity to enter the American market,” Al -Sayed Ho said. He said that some potential customers from the United States contacted him even before Mr. Trump, and the number of inquiries increases.