Finance Minister Su Jain-rong (???) said on Monday that China’s suspension of some shipments of Taiwan’s beer and liquor is expected to cost Taiwanese exporters no more than NT$1 billion (US$32.57 million).
In a hearing held at the Legislature’s Finance Committee, Su said Taiwan sells about NT$3.7 billion in beer and liquor a year to China, and based on the records, China’s shipment suspension could lead to a loss of about NT$1 billion for affected Taiwanese companies initially.
China’s move to suspend imports of some Taiwan beer, liquor and other beverage products came last Friday, just two days after China’s General Administration of Customs banned imports of Taiwan’s seafood, citing a failure to comply with a new customs registration system the Chinese authorities introduced last year, which became effective from Jan. 1, 2022.
The ban on beer and liquor affected many Taiwanese suppliers such as Taihu Brewing, Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor Inc., King Car Food Industrial Co., Legend Brewery Co., Win Shan International Co., and state-own Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corp. (TTL).
Su said the Executive Yuan held several meetings, starting from January, regarding the new Chinese customs registration system, and began to give instructions to Taiwanese exporters on how to respond to the new mechanism.
The Ministry of Finance has told Taiwanese beer and liquor suppliers to abide by the new rules from the Chinese customs authorities and give all necessary information China had requested while applying for a qualification code under the new registration system, he added.
“But it turned out that many of their applications were turned down (by the Chinese authorities) repeatedly and were asked to give more information,” Su said. “What puzzled these applicants was that China never said why their applications were rejected.”
TTL has said it adhered to Chinese customs regulations for registration and secured a qualification code in January, citing a notice from the authorities, and it followed the rules under the new Chinese customs registration system to secure a new qualification code when that was required.
At the beginning of September, its registration had been shown as “valid” on the Chinese customs agency’s website, TTL said, adding that it had no idea why its qualification code became invalid on Dec. 9.
TTL said the shipment suspension, involving brewing and distillery items, will affect its imports planned for December and is expected to cost the company about NT$1.3 million
As Taiwan and China are the members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Su said, both sides should negotiate with each other on trade issues. Beijing’s use of non-trade barriers to hurt Taiwanese exporters violates WTO rules, he underlined.
On the sidelines of the legislative hearing, Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua (???) told reporters that many countries have said the new Chinese customs registration system is unreasonable.
Even worse, she pointed out, the latest mechanism is biased against Taiwanese exporters since the Chinese authorities had requested that they give more information to complete their registration about a year before similar requests were made to exporters from other countries.
Wang said the move by China to ban Taiwan’s seafood, beer, liquor and other beverages was an “ambush” against Taiwanese exporters.
She said Taiwan’s government has kicked off a plan to promote Taiwanese food products on the global markets, with about NT$1.7 billion potential business opportunities for this year.
The plan will continue next year to help Taiwanese suppliers diversify their sales destinations, the minister added.
Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Jessica Chen (???), who represents the outlying county of Kinmen where Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor Inc. is headquartered, flew to the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen Monday morning, in which she said she will meet with relevant Chinese authorities for talks about Beijing’s latest ban.
She told CNA ahead of her departure that she will also discuss the future development of the cross-strait travel known as “mini-three links,” which were suspended on Feb. 10, 2020 amid concerns over the spiraling COVID-19 outbreak in China.
The mini-three links refers to direct trade, postal and transport services launched on Jan. 1, 2001 between Kinmen and Matsu in the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Xiamen, Mawei, and Quanzhou in China’s Fujian Province.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel