A new update in the tariff negotiations, U.S. media reports that the United States is demanding investments between US$350 billion and US$500 billion from Taiwan. Responding to legislators' concerns that such investments may require the Central Bank’s foreign exchange reserves, Central Bank Deputy Governor Tzung-Ta Yen (嚴宗大) said the bank alone manages its reserves, and that market conditions will affect whether they are needed for such large remittances.

Per Politico, which cites anonymous sources familiar with the Taiwan-U.S. tariff negotiations, the Trump administration is arranging for a clause in the tariff agreement that would require Taiwan to invest billions of dollars into the United States. The requirement would be similar to commitments made by South Korea and Japan earlier in 2025, likely with an amount somewhere between the two.

This announcement caught the attention of legislators, who questioned Finance Minister Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) and Central Bank Deputy Governor Yen on Thursday. Legislators pointed out that US$300 billion is equivalent to nearly NT$10 trillion and questioned how Taiwan’s potential contributions were being compared to South Korea and Japan despite Taiwan being much smaller in scale than both. Chuang stated the results are not finalized yet and that the negotiation team will announce their progress when the time is right.

Legislators also raised concerns that large investments in the United States—prompting businesses to exchange significant amounts of Taiwanese currency for U.S. currency—could affect the Taiwan dollar exchange rate. When asked whether the Central Bank would use its foreign exchange reserves, Yen said the bank manages and uses its reserves independently, deploying them only to adjust the market when necessary. 

“The Central Bank manages and utilizes foreign exchange reserves,” Yen said. “Whether this affects the market will depend on whether we have made significant adjustments. We will need to assess the supply and demand conditions of the foreign exchange market at that time.”