Taipei, Nov. 5 (CNA) Taiwan’s growing trade and investment ties with the United States are unlikely to be derailed by increased congressional scrutiny of Taiwan-U.S. trade agreements following the U.S. midterm elections, a Taiwanese trade expert said Thursday.
Speaking to reporters after a forum in Taipei, Roy Lee (李淳), a senior deputy executive director and associate research fellow at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research’s Center for International Trade Policy, said supply-chain shifts were already deepening economic integration regardless of progress on the Taiwan-U.S. trade agreement.
“Even if congressional oversight in the U.S. takes longer, or Taiwan’s review takes longer than expected, I don’t think that will affect the ongoing economic integration between Taiwan and the U.S.,” Lee said.
Democrats secured majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate in Tuesday’s elections.
When Democrats take control of Congress in January, they will end two years of unified Republican control of both chambers and the White House, strengthening congressional oversight of President Donald Trump’s administration, giving Democrats power to block legislation and enabling the Senate to reject his nominees.
Democrats also captured Republican-held governorships in Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and Texas.
In Texas, Gina Hinojosa defeated incumbent Greg Abbott to become the first Democrat elected governor since 1990. She has pledged to halt new data center approvals until state lawmakers pass legislation protecting local communities.
During the forum, organized by the Institute for National Policy Research, Lee said Congress would seek greater involvement in tariff and technology policy.
Democrats could challenge tariffs on U.S. allies and partners, including Taiwan, while maintaining bipartisan efforts to restrict China’s technological development, he said.
In a subsequent interview, Lee also played down the potential impact of state and local constraints on data center development on Taiwanese hardware suppliers.
U.S. data center owners and operators would have to address permitting requirements and community concerns before Taiwanese suppliers provided servers, power systems and cooling equipment, he said.
“There may be a slight slowdown in expansion in the short term, but the overall direction has not changed,” Lee said, predicting continued growth in demand for artificial intelligence (AI).
At the forum, Ronan Fu (傅澤民), an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Political Science, cautioned against interpreting the Democratic victory as a broad ideological shift.
“Voters punished Trump, but that does not mean they developed a strong attachment to the Democratic Party,” Fu said.
He described the result as “retrospective voting,” in which voters judged the administration on living costs and household finances.
Tariffs and the Iran war had become domestic concerns because of their effects on prices, he argued.
Also speaking at the forum, Wu Chung-li (吳重禮), director and distinguished research fellow at the same institute, warned that local political constraints could affect Taiwanese AI-related investment in the U.S.
Concerns about electricity, water and environmental burdens could impede data center development, while local authorities wielded influence over land use, construction permits and related regulations, Wu said.
Speaking separately to reporters afterward, Wu cautioned that lawmakers’ focus on domestic problems could give the president greater latitude in determining foreign policy.
Taiwan would need to monitor whether U.S. arms sales continue and how quickly they proceed and rebuild congressional ties as some Taiwan-friendly lawmakers retired or lost their seats, he added.
(By Chao Yen-hsiang)
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