Taiwan is and has been a strong trading partner with the US. In fact, in the 2021 fiscal year, the US exported over $36.8 billion worth of goods to Taiwan, ranking it our 8th largest trading partner.
And not just agricultural products. in 2020 they included machinery ($5.7 billion), electrical machinery ($5.2 billion), mineral fuels ($3.3 billion), optical and medical instruments ($2.3 billion), and aircraft ($2.1 billion). Not to mention fruit, soybeans, wheat, beef and other agricultural products which totaled over $3.9 billion in 2021.
As industry leaders testified at a September House Ways and Means committee hearing, the benefits of a trade deal with Taiwan could have an impact on America’s tech sector as well.
The biggest electronic companies from Taiwan are the computer makers Acer and Asus and the phone manufacturer HTC. A collection of small but recognizable makers of things like USB sticks, hard drives and routers are Gigabyte, D-Link and Trend Micro.
Of course, Taiwan’s TSMC makes most of the advanced semiconductors in the world and counts Advanced Micro Devices, Apple and Nvidia among its customers.
Holding up a trade deal with Congressional members from both sides of the aisle is how such a deal may aggravate China. And since Congress has the exclusive constitutional authority to regulate foreign commerce, such a trade deal with Taiwan rests solely with the political consideration of it.