TARIFF EVASION: Local firms have complained that the current fine of NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 cannot deter companies from changing their products’ country of origin
Taipei Times
Date: May 16, 2019
By: Lee Hsin-fang and Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Executive Yuan today is expected to approve draft amendments to the Foreign Trade
Premier Su Tseng-chang speaks beneath a portrait of Republic of China founder Sun Yat-sen in an undated photograph.Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
Act (貿易法) aimed at preventing companies from shipping China-made products to Taiwan to receive a “Made in Taiwan” (MIT) certificate of origin, an anonymous source said.
The amendments were published last month by the Bureau of Foreign Trade amid an ongoing US-China trade dispute.
To evade US tariffs on Chinese goods, a number of products from China destined for the US have been found making stopovers in Taiwan to gain an MIT label to conceal their source, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said last month.
Under the amendments, firms found guilty of illegally exporting “strategic high-tech goods” to non-restricted regions, applying and using false certificates of origin, illegally transferring goods, labeling false countries of origin or disturbing trade through undue means would face a fine of NT$60,000 to NT$3 million (US$1,929 to US$96,432), up from NT$30,000 to NT$300,000. [FULL STORY]