Taipei: Taiwan People's Party (TPP) chairman Huang Kuo-chang on Wednesday urged the government to seek talks with Washington on whether to revise the U.S.-Taiwan Reciprocal Trade Agreement (ART), while Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) President Lien Hsien-ming warned against such action.

According to Focus Taiwan, Lien noted that seeking to renegotiate the pact would be tantamount to tearing it up and could leave Taiwan in a more disadvantageous position. These remarks came after the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled that "reciprocal" tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were unconstitutional. This prompted the administration to invoke Section 122 of the 1974 U.S. Trade Act to impose a global 15 percent tariff in addition to the most-favored-nation (MFN) tariff rate.

The ruling has created uncertainty for Taiwan, which had just signed the ART. Speaking at a news conference, Huang said he has consistently urged people "to go back and look at the text of the agreement." He emphasized that the ART does not stipulate that the U.S. cannot impose an additional 15 percent tariff under Section 122 of the 1974 U.S. Trade Act.

Huang argued that Taiwan should seek an undertaking from the U.S. that it "will not impose an additional 15 percent tariff under the 1974 Trade Act." However, Lien expressed a different viewpoint during a YouTube livestream on Tuesday, stating that although SCOTUS declared the IEEPA tariffs unconstitutional, "the section that most deeply affects Taiwan's exports to the U.S. is actually Section 232, especially national security industries including semiconductors."

Lien added that Taiwan and the U.S. earlier reached agreements on US$250 billion each in enterprise investment and credit guarantees "in exchange for the U.S. side granting Taiwan most-favored-nation treatment under Section 232." He warned that halting or overturning the agreement would present two risks: Taiwan's existing large-scale investment commitments in the U.S. might invite retaliatory tariffs, and its significant trade surplus with the U.S. could prompt an investigation under Section 301 of the 1974 U.S. Trade Act, potentially removing the 15 percent cap protection on tariffs.

Lien concluded that "currently no other country has proposed renegotiation," cautioning that Taiwan would be the first to challenge Trump if it pursued such a course.