The Executive Yuan yesterday urged China to engage in dialogue under the WTO framework, after Beijing ended tariff exemptions on dozens of agricultural goods from Taiwan.
On Wednesday night, the Chinese Ministry of Finance announced that 34 items, including fresh fruit, vegetables and aquatic products that were originally exempt from tariffs, would no longer be eligible for exemptions from Wednesday next week.
The ministry claimed the reason was Taiwan’s “unilateral and discriminatory restrictions and measures” against products exported from China, which has “seriously deterred cross-strait economic cooperation.”
Photo: Taipei Times
Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said that the Executive Yuan strongly protests the “economic coercion” which China has engaged in against Taiwan since 2021.
China’s insistence that Taiwan had imposed trade barriers and its subsequent “retaliatory measures” are contrary to WTO regulations, Lee said.
She urged China to engage in “dialogue instead of confrontation” as a member of the WTO.
The Mainland Affairs Council also condemned China’s announcement, labeling the move “economic coercion.”
In a statement released late on Wednesday, the council said that China’s decision represents a “weaponization” of trade, and harms farmers and fishers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
“This only leads to resentment among Taiwan’s farmers, fishers and the public, and does not contribute to the long-term development of cross-strait relations,” the council said.
It is clear China is weaponizing trade and using preferential measures as tools of coercion, it said, warning that the Chinese Communist Party’s “goodwill” has political motives and can be revoked at any time.
The Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday night said that the impact of the sudden policy change would be manageable.
The ministry said that China had previously unilaterally suspended the imports of Taiwanese pineapples, mangoes and wax apples, and that few items are subject to zero tariffs.
Moreover, registration is required for food products imported into China, imposing further obstacles for Taiwanese exporters, it said.
Other obstacles include high marketing costs, long waiting times to clear customs, relatively high value-added taxes, the prevalence of local fruits being passed off as Taiwanese fruit, competition from low-cost local fruits and the difficulty of resolving disputes, the ministry added.
Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) said that there were 52 items that could be imported into China tariff-free.
The 34 items to be terminated from this tariff-free list had initially been added in 2005 and 2007.
Items that could be impacted include pomeloes, atemoyas and silverfish, Chen said.
Trade statistics from last year show that 34 types of produce enjoyed collective savings of about US$1.08 million in tariffs, Chen added.
The ministry said that the government had been urging China to negotiate over tariff-related matters to prevent the arbitrary cancelation of the favorable measures.
China has yet to respond to the requests, it said.
Since China began suspending Taiwanese imports, the ministry has taken measures to enhance Taiwan’s competitiveness and develop markets outside of China, it said.
For example, pineapples began to be exported to Australia in 2020 and New Zealand this year, while dragon fruit began being exported to Japan this year, it said.
Taiwan in 2020 exported US$3.89 billion of produce to overseas markets other than China. Last year, this amount grew to US$4.39 billion, it added.
Lee said that the proportion of Taiwan’s produce exports that went to China fell from 23.2 percent in 2018 to 10.2 percent last year.
In particular, fruit exports to China dropped from 80.1 percent of Taiwan’s total fruit exports in 2019 to 6 percent last year, she added.
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