Tariffs, Taiwan, and the Price of a Screw

Trade wars hit the Taiwanese family workshops that hold the US together

Oct 09, 2025

Editor’s note: Reporting from Taiwan, econVue contributor Eric Huang shows how the Trump tariffs are hitting small exporters, and ultimately, the US consumer. His report follows Marsha Vande Berg’s VuePoint on the market impact of US trade policy, launching our series “Tariffs and the Ties That Bind.”

The Trump tariffs are no longer a threat hanging in the air. They are here, blunt instruments already reshaping Taiwan’s export economy. At first, Washington floated a 32% blanket tariff on Taiwan. After pushback, it was cut to 20%. Semiconductors got special treatment, because the White House knows that America cannot function without chips from Hsinchu1 But for everyone else, the message was clear: pay up or lose access.

The numbers tell the story. In 2024 Taiwan sold $116.3 billion worth of goods to America. About 36% of that, roughly $42 billion, is now exposed to tariffs. The chipmakers can breathe easier; the hardware manufacturers cannot2.

Trump Tariffs Roiling Taiwan's Industrial Clusters｜Industry｜2025-04-23｜CommonWealth Magazine Vol.821

The Kingdom of Screws Under Pressure

Taiwan has long been called the “kingdom of screws.” In 2023 alone it exported just over $2 billion worth of fasteners to the United States, nearly 44% of its total output.3 If you walk into a Home Depot in Ohio or a Lowe’s in Texas and grab a box of bolts, chances are they were made in a workshop in Taichung or Kaohsiung. For decades this was a reliable, if unspectacular, business. But tariffs changed the math overnight.

❝ Americans don’t know it’s from Taichung. But they’ll feel it when the price of a box of screws goes up a dollar.

As if that were not enough, the Taiwan dollar surged in May, jumping 6-7% in a matter of days and breaking through the NT$30 per US dollar level.4 For exporters, that swing can be lethal. A stronger currency means every dollar of sales converts into fewer Taiwan dollars. Bloomberg analysts have warned that a 10% appreciation could cut profits at major tech firms by as much as 10%.5 For a small factory making screws at razor-thin margins, it can mean the difference between survival and closure.

Life Inside a Taichung Workshop

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On the outskirts of Taichung sits a modest fastener workshop, a second-generation family business that has been stamping out screws and bolts for over thirty years. The factory is small by global standards but emblematic of the thousands of medium-sized exporters that keep American hardware shelves stocked.

The owner, a middle-aged man with an understated manner, asked to remain anonymous. He explained to me that he does not seek publicity and prefers to speak only if his name is not used:

❝ We try not to fire people out of sentiment,” he said, using the Chinese word qinggǎn (情感), which conveys a mix of emotional attachment and human feeling. “Before Lunar New Year, everyone expects the bonus. But if tariffs stay in place and the Taiwan dollar keeps climbing, after February we will have no choice but to cut.

Hidden Labor Behind American Shelves

His screws do not carry his family’s name in America. They move through distributors, get re-boxed, and end up on U.S. shelves under private labels. The owner shrugged. “Americans don’t know it’s from Taichung. But they’ll feel it when the price of a box of screws goes up a dollar.” Fastener-World has already reported complaints from US consumers noticing higher screw prices at Home Depot stores.6

That sense of timing is crucial. In Taiwan, companies almost never lay people off before Lunar New Year. Workers expect the red envelope, and bosses know their reputation is on the line. Surveys in early 2025 showed that 96% of firms planned to pay bonuses averaging 1.39 months of salary.7 Government data later confirmed that across the industrial and service sectors, the average reached 1.72 months, about NT$81,0008. After that holiday cycle, however, loyalty gives way to balance sheets. February and March are when many firms quietly trim.

The fastener sector is not small. More than 1,800 companies, most of them family-run, still dominate global supply9. But tariffs and a strong currency are forcing some to look abroad. Production lines are already being set up in Vietnam, Thailand, and Mexico.10

The Taichung owner knows the choices ahead are stark. “Family business or not,” he said, “if orders don’t come back, I can’t keep burning money”.

The Future of “Made in Taiwan”

The screws that hold American homes and cars together are still being made in Taiwan today. Whether that remains true next year depends on how Washington draws its tariff lines, how the Taiwan dollar moves, and how long family-run businesses can keep paying workers before they start cutting.

The quiet pain behind Washington’s tariff math is that if tariffs and the strong Taiwan dollar keep grinding away, the screws that hold America together may no longer be Made in Taiwan.