US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has claimed that Taiwan will train American chip workers.

In an interview with CNBC, Lutnick said: “I think that when we do a deal with Taiwan, that’s even going to be bigger.

“Of course, they are going to train American workers.

“The whole objective is to bring the supply chains to America, build semiconductors in America… train Americans to do it.”

The deal in question relates to tariffs. American tariffs on Taiwan are currently set at 20 percent, with the country reportedly seeking a reduction to 15 percent.

But according to Focus Taiwan, Taiwanese trade envoy Yang Jen-ni has told lawmakers that technology transfer arrangements would not be part of any future tariff deal.

This is not the first time that details of the pair’s storied negotiations have spilled out into the public.

In October, Lutnick said that he had pitched a 50-50 semiconductor production split, with half of production occurring in Taiwan and the other half in America. But Vice Premier Cheng Li-Chiun quickly said that the proposal had never been discussed, asserting that Taiwan’s negotiating team had never made any such promises.

The Trump administration has been pushing for key Taiwanese semiconductor companies to move manufacturing to the US.

In November, Foxconn announced that it would partner with OpenAI to design server racks for AI data centers, as well as agreeing to manufacture key components in the US, and in October, chip manufacturing giant TSMC debuted its first US-made Nvidia Blackwell wafer at the company’s fab in Phoenix, Arizona.