The Ministry of Economic Affairs would fine companies that contravene country of origin laws NT$60,000 to NT$3 million (US$1,845 to US$92,251), Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said at the legislature in Taipei yesterday, adding that serious breaches would result in a suspension of a firm’s operations.
The government is paying extra attention to the issue of origins fraud, as it is a top factor in tariff negotiations between Taiwan and the US, Kuo told a meeting of the Economics Committee.
Asked by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) how the ministry would prevent China from taking advantage of Taiwan in terms of product mislabeling and origin fraud, Kuo said that the ministry is closely monitoring the situation and preparing countermeasures.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“We will monitor import volumes, strictly enforce penalties with fines from NT$60,000 to NT$3 million per violation and revoke import-export licenses of fraudsters,” Kuo said.
The ministry would bolster anti-dumping investigations and raise awareness among local businesses about the matter, he said.
There have been nearly 800 cases of origin fraud since 2020, with fines totaling NT$29.58 million over contraventions of the Foreign Trade Act (貿易法) and the Act for the Establishment and Management of Free Trade Zones (自由貿易港區設置管理條例), Ministry of Finance data showed.
At a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee, Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) said that the government would take all necessary steps to prevent attempts by firms to disguise the origin of their Chinese-made products.
The finance ministry has set up a task force to improve inspections of illegal transshipments at customs to prevent the use of Taiwan as a base for re-exports to the US to avoid higher duties, Chuang said.
However, as the fines stipulated by the free trade zones act are NT$30,000 to NT$300,000, far lower than the maximum NT$3 million stipulated by the Foreign Trade Act, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, which is in charge of the trade zones, should consider increasing them, she said.
Meanwhile, National Development Council Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said that the state-run National Development Fund has issued notices to all of its portfolio companies, requiring them to refrain from any country-of-origin mislabeling.
The council had received more than 40 responses as of yesterday afternoon, Liu said.
Separately, Kuo said that a tariff imposed by US President Donald Trump on Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturers’ products would mostly affect their clients in the US.
“The government will work hard with the US clients to let the US government understand what a negative influence a heavy tariff rate can cause to the industry, hoping to negotiate for a better rate for Taiwanese manufacturers,” he said.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS