Taiwan rebukes Beijing’s claim of island import ‘barriers’, calling it ‘obvious meddling’

At the request of Chinese trade associations, the mainland’s Ministry of Commerce conducted an eight-month investigation – and the results are in

Findings threaten to further strain cross-strait tensions just ahead of island’s presidential election

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Zhu Fenglian (pictured), a spokeswoman for the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said Beijing should take action “in line with regulations”, in response to alleged trade actions by Taiwanese authorities. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 1:20pm, 15 Dec 2023Updated: 9:09am, 27 Dec 2023

Taiwan has placed “barriers” on the imports of numerous goods and sidestepped the spirit of a landmark trade agreement, mainland China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.

The findings may further strain already-tense relations just weeks before the island’s presidential election.

An eight-month probe found that Taiwan was blocking 2,509 mainland Chinese mineral, agricultural and textile goods from reaching the island, the ministry said on its website.

The ministry “determined that Taiwan’s trade restrictions on the mainland constitute a trade barrier, with a negative impact on trade for related industries and enterprises in mainland China”.

A cross-strait trade and economic deal signed in 2010 said both sides should reduce or eliminate trade barriers, but the “scope of prohibited imports of mainland products has shown an expansion trend in recent years”, the ministry said.

The State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office said in a separate statement on Friday that the evidence was clear, calling the investigation results fair and objective – reinforcing its stance from August that had been based on preliminary findings.

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