US-China trade war, Donald Trump and pressure from Beijing are three biggest worries for Taiwan-based firms this year
- Survey of business leaders by American Chamber of Commerce highlights biggest concerns for coming year
Foreign business leaders based in Taiwan have highlighted the trade war between the United States and China, Donald Trump’s “America first” policies and cross-strait political tensions as the three biggest risks the island’s economy faces this year.
According to the annual Business Climate Survey released by the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei on Wednesday, multinational business leaders are significantly less confident than last year about Taiwan’s economic prospects in the coming year.
“Only 45.8 per cent of those surveyed said they were very or somewhat confident about the economic outlook for 2019 – a 10 percentage point drop from the year before,” the survey said.
The annual survey also flagged cybersecurity threats and intellectual property rights violations as causes for concern.
The survey questioned senior representatives of the 500 biggest corporations operating in Taiwan, and found that 81 per cent of respondents expressed concern about the trade war, followed by 79 per cent who were worried about political pressure from the mainland and 73 per cent who identified Trump’s American first policies as a problem.