Taipei threatened to take China to the WTO yesterday after Beijing said it would suspend wax apple and custard apple imports from Taiwan due to pest concerns.
China’s customs administration earlier yesterday said it had repeatedly found pests called Planococcus minor, a type of mealybug, on wax and custard apples from Taiwan.
It asked its Guangdong branch and all affiliated offices to stop clearing the products from today.
Photo: CNA
China had acted unilaterally, without providing scientific evidence, Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) told a news conference, criticizing the announcement’s timing, as it came during the Mid-Autumn Festival, celebrated in Taiwan and China.
“We cannot accept this,” Chen said, adding that his office had only received notice of China’s decision at 9am yesterday.
Taiwan has told China that it would take the matter to the WTO if Beijing does not respond to Taipei’s request to resolve the issue under their existing bilateral framework before Thursday next week, he added.
The council would earmark NT$1 billion (US$36.05 million) to help promote domestic sales of wax and custard apples, and expand their sales to other overseas markets, Chen said.
Other measures would include extending the harvest time for the fruits, which usually begins in December, to enable farmers to sell them for a longer period, he added.
The mealybug in question is present in many Asian countries, Chen said, adding that as they are usually found on the surface of fruits, a common practice by the importing country is to fumigate the fruit with methyl bromide, so the shipments can clear customs.
During the first half of this year, China notified Taiwan about mealybugs found in 13 shipments of custard apples and six shipments of wax apples, but did not provide any scientific proof, Chen said, adding that there had been no reports of mealybugs in July and last month.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) condemned the move on Facebook last night, saying that the government would assist and protect farmers in the face of the “unreasonable market interference.”
The Mainland Affairs Council said China’s arbitrary move not only failed to comply with WTO and international trade rules, but also damaged the normal cross-strait trade mechanism.
The move should cast doubt over China’s application last week to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) wrote on Twitter.
According to the COA, Taiwan produces 57,000 tonnes of custard apples and about 47,000 tonnes of wax apples each year. They are grown mainly in Kaohsiung, and Taitung and Pingtung counties.
About 90 percent of the exports of the two fruits are shipped to China, accounting for 23 percent of Taiwan’s total production of custard apples and 10 percent of its wax apples, COA data showed.
Taitung County Council Speaker Rao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴) urged farmers not to panic, adding that the county government would continue assisting them in exterminating pests, as well as working with the central government to promote their products in other countries.
Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said that while his county is the nation’s biggest wax apple producer, China’s ban would have a limited effect, as its wax apple exports to China on average make up less than 10 percent of its total wax apple production.
Yesterday was the second time this year that China has halted fruit imports from Taiwan.
Claiming that repeatedly seized pineapple shipments from Taiwan carried “perilous organisms,” China on March 1 suspended pineapple imports from Taiwan.
Taiwan accused Beijing of playing politics and the COA spent NT$1 billion to promote pineapple sales at home and abroad.
COA data last month showed that pineapple growers have subsequently fared better, with shipments to Japan surging more than eight times to 16,556 tonnes in the four months through June from a year earlier.
Additional reporting by Yang Chun-hui,
Huang Ming-tang and Lo Hsin-chen
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS