The Taiwan Machine Tool and Accessory Builders’ Association (TMBA) yesterday said that it would continue to adhere to government sanctions against specific exports to Russia, but it did not directly address recent news reports that some of its members had been flouting the regulations.
In a statement, the TMBA said that since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the association has been keeping a close eye on the military conflict and has been reminding its members to stay in line with the export sanctions imposed by Taiwan and other countries.
Since April 2022, the government has been listing goods that are banned from export to Russia, primarily high-tech products.
Photo: CNA
The sanctions on the export of strategic high-tech commodities (SHTC), as they are called, are aimed at preventing their use by countries like Russia, Belarus, Iran and North Korea for military purposes, and at upholding Taiwan’s commitment to international cooperation, the government has said.
The original SHTC list included nuclear energy materials, electronic items, computers, telecommunications and information security products, sensors, lasers, navigation and avionics items, and maritime, aerospace and propulsion systems.
In January last year, the International Trade Administration (ITA) — the government agency that handles such matters — added 52 items to the SHTC list for Russia and Belarus, including chemical products and machine tools.
Citing an investigative report, the Taiwan-based news site The Reporter on Wednesday said that some Taiwanese machine tool suppliers had been taking advantage of the loopholes in export controls to sell sensitive products not only to Russia’s military, but also to its Lebedev Physical Institute and Budker Nuclear Physics Institute, which are on a banned list compiled by the US Department of Commerce.
The Chinese language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) on Tuesday reported that ITA officials had met with representatives of Taiwan’s machinery and machine tool exporters and their business associations earlier in the week, asking them to carefully investigate their clients to prevent breaches of the sanctions.
The TMBA yesterday said that it had asked its members to pay close attention to the sale and distribution of their products so that the goods do not indirectly end up in the sanctioned countries.
The TMBA added that it has advised its members to immediately stop supplying finished machine tool products and components to the sanctioned countries, regardless of whether the products are on the SHTC list.
That is a precaution to prevent the use of those products for unknown purposes, which could accidentally breach international export controls, the TMBA said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS