Taiwan unveils $2.7 billion in help for companies to deal with US tariffs

TAIPEI, April 4 (Reuters) - Taiwan's government announced T$88 billion ($2.67 billion) worth of financial help on Friday for companies and industries to deal with the impact of U.S. tariffs.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced across-the-board import tariffs, with much higher duties for dozens of trading partners including Taiwan, which runs a large trade surplus with the United States and is facing a 32% duty on its products.

The U.S. tariffs, however, do not apply to semiconductors, a major Taiwanese export.

Speaking at a news conference in Taipei, Premier Cho Jung-tai reiterated that the government regarded the tariffs as unreasonable, saying it would provide T$88 billion to help companies affected, with the electronics and steel sectors among those worst impacted.

"The government's responsibility is to continue to manage and control the risk and understand the needs of industry," he said.

Cho added that he had asked Taiwan's Office of Trade Negotiations to talk to the United States to try and lessen the impact of the tariffs.

Finance Minister Chuang Tsui-yun, speaking next to Cho, said the government would also provide an interest rate reduction on loans for exporters worth T$200 billion.

The announcements were made before financial markets .TWII re-open in Taiwan on Monday, having been closed on Thursday and Friday for a holiday.

Taiwan, for whom the United States is the island's most important international backer in the face of mounting Chinese pressure over Beijing's sovereignty claims, has not announced any retaliatory tariffs.

Taiwanese government officials have repeatedly said trade with the U.S. has been skewed by strong demand for Taiwanese technology products, such as advanced semiconductors - a sector dominated by the island, home to the world's largest contract chipmaker TSMC 2330.TW.

TSMC, which is a key manufacturing partner to U.S. companies Nvidia NVDA.O, Apple AAPL.O and Qualcomm QCOM.O, last month announced a new $100 billion investment in the United States.

($1 = 32.9730 Taiwan dollars)

($1 = 32.9990 Taiwan dollars)