TAIPEI (Reuters) – The head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan said on Thursday he expects continued firm support for the island from Donald Trump’s incoming administration, but a U.S.-Taiwan trade agreement seen as critical for business had only a “modest” chance of happening.
Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, enjoyed strong support from the first Trump administration, which regularised the arms sales that President Joe Biden continued.
But Trump unnerved Taiwan on the campaign trail by calling for the island to pay to be defended.
Trump, who will be sworn in on Jan. 20, has also pledged a blanket tariff of 10% on global imports into the United States, which Taiwanese policymakers have warned could curb growth this year for the trade-dependent island.
AmCham Taiwan Chairperson Dan Silver, releasing the group’s 2025 Business Climate Survey, said three-quarters of respondents judged a Taiwan-U.S. bilateral trade agreement as critical to their business success, though he added the prospects for that happening were “modest”.
But he said the group was pleased to see people with a history of strong support for Taiwan, including Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio and incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz, in the new government.
“We know that support in Congress for Taiwan and the relationships across the spectrum of areas including the economic and trade relationship is as high as it has been in the past 40 years,” Silver said.
“And so we see this as a multi-stakeholder level of engagement with Taiwan and we believe that will continue into the new administration.”
AmCham Taiwan, which said that 212 of its 423 eligible members responded to the survey, said 90% planned to maintain or increase investment in the island this year, noting confidence in Taiwan was high.
On where members wanted Taiwan’s government to place its priorities this year, energy overtook relations with China compared to last year’s survey, the island having had persistent problems with stable electricity supplies.
Personal anxiety about increased military activity around Taiwan edged slightly higher on a one-to-five scale, from 2.8 last year to three this year, the survey found.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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