Taipei: Taiwan has accused China of smuggling vegetables into the self-ruled island through Vietnam to avoid import restrictions, with officials pledging to impose a crackdown on a practice they termed “origin washing.”
Taiwan, which has prohibited import of over 1,000 Chinese agricultural and fishery products, said companies in China were avoiding restrictions by rerouting vegetables like Napa cabbage and shiitake mushrooms through Vietnam, British daily newspaper, The Guardian reported.
According to officials, the items are then repackaged as Vietnamese goods and imported into Taiwan. While addressing lawmakers at a legislative meeting, Taiwan’s agriculture minister Chen Junne-jih said that his ministry is taking steps to combat origin laundering, including enforcing strict penalties on violators.
Chen mentioned that his ministry would conduct aerial surveys in Veitnam to map out how much produce could feasibly originate from certain areas. He said, “If the volume exported to Taiwan exceeds that, there should be a mechanism to address it.”
During a meeting on Wednesday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Chiu Yi-ying said it was possible to fraudulently buy an official Vietnamese certificate of origin for NT$13,000 (about USD 410). She mentioned that importers can then earn profits between NT$200,000 and NT$500,000 per container. She urged the agriculture ministry to take action against the practice by requiring third-party isotope testing to analyse the origin of the product.
China considers Taiwan as part of its territory and does not rule out the use of force for “reunification”.
During early 200s, cooperation between Taiwan and China resulted in the signing of a landmark free trade agreement between Beijing and Taipei in 2010.
In recent years, China’s tried to intimidate Taiwan’s ruling pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and President Lai Ching-te by increasing military, political and economic pressure.
Initially, China suspended the import of Taiwanese pineapples in 2021 over pest control concerns, a move termed political by Taipei. In 2024, Taiwan accused China of violating World Trade Organisation rules after it imposed a ban on imports of several Taiwanese fruits, vegetables and seafood, The Guardian reported.
Taiwan termed the move “economic coercion”, stressing that it “harms the interests of farmers” on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Meanwhile, China accused Taiwan of breaching the terms of its 2010 free trade agreement by prohibiting the import of 2,509 Chinese products.
(IANS)
