People should be on the alert for masks on some e-commerce sites that are falsely labeled as being made in Taiwan, a pharmaceutical association in Taipei said on Thursday.
This week, more than 140,000 imported masks with false labels were seized by the Customs Administration, the Taiwan Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management Association said.
People should buy masks from reputable brick-and-mortar stores, where they can verify the product’s origin, association president Kao Meng-hsi (高孟熙) said.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Customs
Masks that are properly packaged are safer than those sold in transparent plastic bags with no label, he added.
Buyers should find the Chinese National Standard (CNS) number on the package, as well as the manufacturer’s name and contact information, pharmacist Shen Tsai-ying (沈采穎) said.
Boxes of masks should be labeled “CNS14774,” indicating that the product has been approved for medical use, Shen said, adding that not all masks are made to that standard, as some are only meant to protect against dust and other types of atmospheric pollution.
The CNS number indicates “compliance of product quality with national standards and the compliance of manufacturers’ quality management systems with the requirements of ISO 9000 series of standards,” the Web site of the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection says.
The issue of mask quality and origin arose after the Customs Administration seized 7,350 imported masks on Monday and another 132,781 masks the following day — all falsely labeled “Made in Taiwan.”
The masks were shipped via courier from China or Hong Kong and had documents falsely listing Taiwan as the origin, Taipei Customs officers said on Wednesday.
The Customs Administration said that since Aug. 1, it has been checking the postal system and courier services more rigorously for counterfeit masks, as people have been importing cheap masks to resell at a markup.
Government approval is required to import masks for use in medical facilities or resale, the Customs Administration said, adding that masks made in Taiwan are of higher quality than those produced in China.
Furthermore, Taiwan prohibits the importation of foreign-made goods that have been falsely labeled to misrepresent the country of manufacture, either through text or representative markings, the Customs Administration said.
The unlimited sale of surgical masks resumed in Taiwan in June, after months of rationing by the government, which was requisitioning the bulk of the domestic supply for medical use amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Taiwan had since increased production to meet local demand and also to supply overseas markets.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS