In 2025, the US-China trade war heats up: Trump's tariff policy impacts the global tech supply chain, TSMC sees a sudden surge in urgent orders, and France proposes European Union border quotas.
In April 2025, the US-China trade war intensified as President Trump imposed tariffs as high as 145% on Chinese goods, and China retaliated by imposing a 125% tariff on American goods. The Trump administration temporarily exempted electronic products like smartphones from tariffs, but the semiconductor industry remained affected. TSMC received urgent orders from American clients, which accelerated the construction of its US plant. The French Finance Minister suggested that the EU set up border quotas to prevent a flood of cheap Chinese goods. After some fluctuations, the Taiwan stock market showed four major bullish signals, and market sentiment stabilized.
Key Updates
04/13 22:06
In 2025, the US-China trade war heats up: Trump's tariff policy impacts the global tech supply chain, TSMC sees a sudden surge in urgent orders, and France proposes European Union border quotas.
In April 2025, the US-China trade war intensified as President Trump imposed tariffs as high as 145% on Chinese goods, and China retaliated by imposing a 125% tariff on American goods. The Trump administration temporarily exempted electronic products like smartphones from tariffs, but the semiconductor industry remained affected. TSMC received urgent orders from American clients, which accelerated the construction of its US plant. The French Finance Minister suggested that the EU set up border quotas to prevent a flood of cheap Chinese goods. After some fluctuations, the Taiwan stock market showed four major bullish signals, and market sentiment stabilized.
Trump's Tariff Policy Escalates, Electronics Temporarily Exempt
On April 9, 2025, U.S. President Trump announced tariffs of up to 145% on Chinese imports, covering industrial parts, agricultural products, and consumer electronics. In response, China's Ministry of Finance immediately retaliated by raising tariffs on U.S. goods from 84% to 125%, accusing the U.S. of breaching international trade rules.
However, on April 11, the Trump administration suddenly announced a temporary tariff exemption for electronic products such as smartphones, laptops, and servers. A White House spokesperson stated that this exemption is intended to ease the burden on American consumers, but Trump still insists that companies like Apple and Nvidia relocate their production lines back to the U.S. The industry generally believes that this exemption might just be a "grace period," and the semiconductor industry could still be the next target for tariffs.
TSMC and Taiwan's Semiconductor Supply Chain Receive Urgent Orders
Facing tariff uncertainties, U.S. cloud service providers (CSPs) like Amazon AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Meta have accelerated their procurement from Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain to avoid potential cost increases. TSMC (2330), a leading foundry for high-performance computing chips (HPC), has recently received a large number of urgent orders and is speeding up the construction of its third fab, Fab 21p, in Arizona, USA, with groundbreaking expected in June.
Additionally, TSMC is simultaneously advancing the construction of advanced packaging plants and has placed new equipment orders with Taiwanese suppliers like Hermes-Epitek, Marketech, and Gudeng, urging the supply chain to expedite shipments to the U.S. ASE Technology Holding (3711) and King Yuan Electronics (2449), responsible for advanced packaging and testing, are also benefiting from this wave of urgent AI server orders.
France Proposes EU Border Quotas to Block Chinese Goods
The escalation of the U.S.-China trade war has led Chinese goods to seek entry into the European market, raising concerns among European countries. French Finance Minister Eric Lombard claimed that low-cost Chinese goods have "flooded Europe," with up to 600 planes loaded with Chinese goods flying to Europe daily, putting pressure on local businesses.
To prevent a further influx of Chinese goods, Lombard urged the European Commission to activate safeguard clauses and establish "border quotas" to protect the internal market. He emphasized that Chinese goods should not evade EU value-added tax and quality standards, and pointed out that Europe should strengthen economic and trade relations with countries like India, Egypt, and the Persian Gulf to diversify risks.
Taiwan Stock Market Shows Four Bullish Signals After Volatility
The Taiwan stock market underwent significant fluctuations following Trump's tariff policy announcement. Last week saw the largest single-day drop (2,065 points) and the largest gain (1,608 points) in history, with the weekly decline narrowing to 8.3%. Analysts identified four major bullish signals in the short term:
- Effective Margin Clearance: Last week, margin financing decreased by NT$75 billion, a 25% reduction, indicating that after investors cut losses, the market stabilized.
- Technical Indicators Bottoming Out: The KD indicator showed a golden cross, and the MACD histogram narrowed, indicating a gathering of bullish forces.
- National Stabilization Fund Intervention: Buying of key stocks like TSMC, Taiwan Cement, and Chunghwa Telecom boosted market confidence.
- Improved Price-Volume Structure: On the 11th, a "price increase with volume increase" pattern emerged, with a trading volume of NT$527.1 billion, and TSMC's trading volume was 2.7 times that of the previous day.
Additionally, the Trump administration's exemption policy for semiconductors and electronic products is viewed as a short-term positive, boosting the rebound of electronic blue-chip stocks. Analysts noted that AI and semiconductor groups like TSMC, UMC, and MediaTek have become the focus of bullish attention.
