Morris Chang：Global ICT industry will be impacted by the trade war

The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC)"s group dialog ended last week. Taiwan’s APEC representative Morris Chang pointed out in the meeting that the second wave of the China-US trade war will impose high tariffs on the 267 billion US dollars of Chinese products.

Mentioned to the impact of trade wars on the information communication technology (ICT) industry, "Once the global information and communications industry is involved in trade war, the costs of the supply chain will increase, leading the prices to hike and end up hurt the global economy. Countries should not be optimistic about this situation" Chang said.

Chang believed that the first wave of trade wars did not involve ICT products, so the global information supply chain has not been affected. However, the second wave of high tariffs for the 267 billion US dollars of Chinese products, have included the ICT products. Chang said that Global information industry will suffer, and will end up hurt the global economy.

On the other hands, regarding digital economic development, Chang warned that the development of AI and other technologies will bring about tremendous changes in human life and customer behaviors. In the future, large-scale unemployment may arise accordingly. Countries must be cautious about it. He stressed that although Taiwan is only a medium-sized economy, we are a key link in the global digital economy and innovation supply chain and is very willing to participate in bilateral or multilateral discussions to solve related problems.