TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s exports to the US nearly doubled in the first quarter of 2026, pushing the US past China and Hong Kong to become Taiwan’s largest trading partner for the first time in 25 years.
Taiwan’s representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源), citing Bloomberg Economics estimates, said Saturday that average US tariffs on Taiwanese imports stood at 7% as of May 2026. The rate was lower than tariffs on imports from Vietnam, Germany, Thailand, and India at 12%, Japan and South Korea at 13%, and Indonesia at 15%, while tariffs on Chinese goods remained at 21%.
Tung said the figures reflect more than the tariff rate gap. “They signal the rapid restructuring of global supply chains and the geopolitical economic landscape, with Taiwan positioned at the very center of this transformation,” he said.
According to Tung, Taiwan’s total exports reached US$640.75 billion (NT$20.21 trillion) in 2025, up 34.9% year-on-year and a record high. Exports to the US rose 78% to US$198.27 billion, accounting for 30.9% of total exports.
Tung noted that for the first time in 26 years, this surpassed the combined share of exports to China and Hong Kong, which came in at 26.6%.
High-tech industries were the main drivers of export growth, with information and communications technology and audiovisual products rising 89.5% year-on-year and electronic components increasing 25.8%. Combined, the two sectors accounted for about 74% of Taiwan’s total exports in 2025.
He said Taiwan-US trade ties strengthened further in 2026, with bilateral trade reaching US$78.25 billion in the first quarter. The US officially surpassed China and Hong Kong as Taiwan’s largest trading partner for the first time in 25 years.
Taiwan’s exports to the US reached US$65.56 billion in the first quarter, accounting for 33.5% of total exports and marking a 98.9% annual increase, nearly doubling from a year earlier. Exports to China totaled US$46.35 billion, representing 23.7% of total exports and a 26.2% increase.
In March alone, Taiwan’s exports to the US reached a record monthly high of US$28.54 billion, soaring 120% year-on-year.
Tung said demand for AI servers, graphics cards, switches, routers, advanced-process wafers, and high-end memory products was the main driver of growth. Taiwan currently controls about 90% of the global AI server supply chain and about 79% of global semiconductor foundry capacity.
He said global supply chains are shifting away from prioritizing “lowest-cost globalization” toward emphasizing “trusted supply chains.” Taiwan’s advantage, he added, lies not only in its manufacturing capabilities but also in the “international community’s deep confidence in Taiwan’s technological strength, supply chain resilience, and strategic reliability.”
