A draft amendment to the Foreign Trade Act (貿易法) that aims to increase fines for using fraudulent certificates of origin yesterday passed a review at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee.
According to the proposal, exporters and importers who are found to have used fraudulent labels of origin or trade certificates would face an administrative fine of NT$60,000 to NT$3 million (US$1,967 to US$98,357).
Currently, the fines range from NT$30,000 to NT$300,000.
The draft amendment would also increase the fines for transporting strategic high-tech goods to any unrestricted region without authorization, as well as for authorized organizations that illegally issue certificates of origin.
The organizations refer to business organizations, industry, farmers’ and fishermen’s associations, as well as provincial agricultural cooperatives, and agricultural product and marketing associations, according to the act.
The act already includes penalties for transporting strategic high-tech products to restricted regions, including a prison term of up to five years and a fine of up to NT$1.5 million.
The draft amendment also includes a “whistle-blower clause” to encourage people to help the government root out offenders, the Legislative Yuan said.
Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) told reporters after the committee review that the draft amendment would immediately come into effect once it clears the legislative floor.
Wang said the heavier fines would serve as a warning that contraventions of the act would have serious consequences.
Before the review, Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) told the committee that the government has identified several companies that have tagged Chinese products with fraudulent labels of origin in an attempt to avoid anti-dumping tariffs imposed by other countries on Chinese exports.
The practice has caused the EU to launch an investigation into Taiwan-made solar energy products, screws, aluminum wheel rims and bicycles, he said.
In addition, amid a US-China trade dispute, some businesses have been found to have transported Chinese products to Taiwan before shipping them to the US with a “Made in Taiwan” label of origin, Shen said.
This has led to “an impact on trade order and Taiwan’s business reputation abroad,” he said, adding that this is why the government introduced the amendment.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS