Beijing has added another beloved product to its growing list of import bans, this time targeting that favorite of Taiwan’s summer fruits: the mango.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office announced the ban on Monday last week, claiming that citrus mealybugs found in mango imports from Taiwan by customs officers posed a “severe threat” to China’s agricultural and ecological security. As with its precursor bans on pineapples, atemoyas and wax apples, this pretext is absurd. In Taipei, the Ministry of Agriculture said it took corrective measures after receiving notice of the alleged issue on June 15 and Aug. 3, even though these were the only two shipments China had complained of out of 5,689. Even if mealybugs were found, two shipments among thousands do not a “severe threat” make — especially after China failed to use WTO-recommended fumigation.
It comes as no surprise to anyone that the real reason is political. Import bans have become a favored lever for Beijing to express its displeasure, mirrored by the carrot of preferential tariffs while China-friendly administrations are in power. It does little to obscure its message: The initial pineapple ban in February 2021 was implemented just before harvest season to maximize the impact on farmers, who are an important political interest group in Taiwan growing a symbolically salient product. Wax apples and atemoyas came next that September amid news that the nation’s office in Washington might change its name to the “Taiwan Representative Office.” Grouper were banned in June last year, followed by more than 100 products in one fell swoop just before then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the following month. This time, the mango ban comes just after Vice President William Lai (賴清德) transited through the US, and as campaigning for January’s presidential and legislative elections begins to heat up.
Yet the somewhat baffling part of this latest ban is its insignificance. Only 2.2 percent of the mangoes Taiwan produced this year were exported, and only 938 tonnes were sent to China in the first seven months of the year. The previous bans were deliberately targeted at products that were heavily reliant on cross-strait sales, with about 90 percent of pineapple, atemoya, wax apple and grouper exports previously going to China. Those with less exposure were grouped into a package of bans on symbolic products such as Kuai Kuai and Taiwan Beer, which rather than materially impacting these companies served to clarify its message.
For mangoes, the amount exported to China has already fallen dramatically from 47.6 percent of total exports in 2019 to 11.6 percent this year. China also ranked only fourth in terms of value, trailing Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, even though by volume it imported more than the former two.
Banning products has only served to hasten Taiwan’s decoupling from the Chinese market, running counter to Beijing’s strategy of peaceful unification through economic envelopment. Producers have had time to diversify to other markets, recouping their losses perhaps sooner than China’s leaders expected. According to the ministry, only 9.1 percent of agricultural export value is bound for China. Taking fruit as an example, the share of exports to China has fallen dramatically from 80.1 percent in 2019 to 1.6 percent last year, replaced largely by Japan and South Korea, which pay far more per unit. This trend is likely to continue, as meeting the high standards for these markets would make Taiwan’s fruit more attractive to other high-income countries.
The economic lever only works if its target market is beholden to China, but after years of using import bans as punishment for its never-ending list of grievances, Beijing is eroding the power it once had over Taiwanese producers. Bans might draw headlines, but there is less bite behind their bark.
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