Taiwan plans to buy more US goods, acts to bust currency manipulator claims

The central bank of Taiwan and the Ministry of Economic Affairs have prepared specific actions to bid for bigger U.S. goods purchases to reduce its trade surplus. More so, Taiwan seeks to disprove U.S.’ claims being a currency manipulator.

Taiwan was called out by the U.S. as a currency manipulator back in December 1992. This year, the U.S. repeated history as Taiwan trade surplus with the U.S. is anticipated to hit the $20 billion mark. Going beyond the said surplus amount, the U.S. qualifies its trade partner under the monitoring list for a currency manipulator.

The U.S. posted a $17.4 billion trade deficit with Taiwan from January to September this year. In response, Taiwan bids to increase the purchase of U.S. oil and natural gas, soybeans, corn, and military hardware.

The surplus account of Taiwan is currently 11% of GDP, hitting another U.S. alarm to be under the watch list of a currency manipulator.

The U.N. study shows that Taiwan was the largest beneficiary of “trade diversion” in additional exports to the United States with $4.2 billion in the first half of 2019.