The average US tariff on Taiwanese agricultural exports has been lowered from 35.62 percent to 13.27 percent under the Taiwan-US Agreement on Reciprocal Trade signed in Washington on Thursday, reducing tariff costs by US$219 million, Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) said yesterday.
Exports of the 261 reciprocal tariff-free agricultural products to the US amount to a monetary value of US$374 million, accounting for 42.1 percent of all Taiwanese agricultural exports to the US, Chen said
Exports include moth orchids, tea, tapioca starch, coffee, taro, guavas, pineapples, mangoes, flamingo plants, fruit juice and pineapple cakes, information from the Ministry of Agriculture showed.
Photo: Wang Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
Taiwan enjoys the most favorable treatment under the agreement along with Japan, South Korea, the EU and Switzerland, and its 15 percent US tariff rate without stacking most favored nation (MFN) tariffs is far more favorable than competitors, such as China (45 percent), Vietnam (20 percent) or Thailand (19 percent), he said.
Using moth orchids as an example, Chen said one in every two moth orchid plants in the US market is from Taiwan, as orchids from Taiwan have a market share of up to 48 percent.
Taiwan secured US reciprocal tariff exemption on moth orchids while the Netherlands — Taiwan’s biggest competitor in the US moth orchid market — is at 15 percent, making Taiwan more competitive in the market, he said.
For US agricultural imports, Taiwanese levies on 27 critical agricultural products stand, including rice, chicken, oyster, garlic, clams and red beans, Chen said.
The government sought to maintain the tariff rate on US rice imports as rice is the staple food for people in Taiwan, involving 225,000 rice farming households with an output value of up to NT$37.8 billion (US$1.2 billion), he said, adding it is a more fruitful outcome than Japan’s or South Korea’s deals.
The government secured a progressive 50 percent tariff reduction over a three-year interval on US pork imports, while the tariff rates for 45 other items like goose meat, grapes and ponkan would decrease to no lower than 10 percent, Chen said.
Up to 85.3 percent of the monetary value — US$1.91 billion — of the US agricultural exports to Taiwan with tariff reduction under the agreement involves steady imports such as wheat, beef, cherries or nuts, he said.
Tariff reduction for such items is expected to lower costs and increase consumer options, he added.
About 14.7 percent of the monetary value — US$330 million — of US agricultural exports with tariff reduction involves items that domestic products have a competitive edge over imported products, including pork, milk, grapes, tangerine and peanuts, Chen said.
Taiwan has a higher market share of these items domestically, while US products still compete mainly with imports from other countries, he said. For example, US tangerine imports are mainly used in processed fruit juice, while domestically grown tangerines are for fresh eating, he said.
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