TAI PEI: Taiwan will soon import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States to reduce its trade surplus with the world’s largest economy, Economic Affairs Minister Shen Jong-chin has said. Shen said Taiwan’s state-owned energy company CPC Corp. has signed a 20-year contract to import LNG from the U.S. that will kick in this year, according to a Politico report published Tuesday based on an interview with Shen conducted in late December. With the LNG imports, “we believe we can efficiently solve the problem of deficits between Taiwan and the U.S.,” Shen was quoted as saying by the political news website.
Taiwan is the 10th-largest trading partner with the U.S., and it had a US$15.5 billion trade surplus with the U.S. through the first 11 months of 2017, up from US$12.5 billion from the same period in 2016, the report said, citing U.S. Department of Commerce data.
