02.02.2024
Regarding recent media reports that a russian weapons manufacturer used a third country transshipment method to obtain Taiwan-made machine tools for weapons purposes, the Ministry of Economic Affairs stated that it had added the russian company iMachine involved in this case to its sanctions list at the beginning of this year (2024).
That is to say, Taiwanese businesses are prohibited from exporting all goods to this company. The Ministry of Economic Affairs emphasized that the international reputation of Taiwanese businessmen is very critical to future global sales and needs to be protected by industry players. The Ministry of Economic Affairs has worked closely with the public associations to continue to strengthen publicity to avoid affecting industrial development.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs pointed out that in order to prevent Taiwan's high-tech goods from being used for russia's development of weapons and expansion, the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced in January 2023 expanded measures to control the export of machine tools to russia to prevent the use of weapons. This approach is in line with most friends. Allied countries agree that if the export application falls within the scope of control, the application will not be approved in principle.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has also asked manufacturers to cut ties and confirm that high-tech goods must not be exported to russia. Since manufacturers have the obligation to declare the end user according to the law, in order to prevent russia from obtaining Taiwan’s high-tech goods through third countries, manufacturers have been required to strictly declare when exporting to countries with high transshipment risks (such as Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Central Asian countries, etc.) to avoid the possibility of transshipment from there to russia and belarus. At the same time, the Trade Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs has also significantly increased the penalties for illegal exports to russia and belarus, increasing the penalties for first-time illegal exports to russia by more than 15 times, which is 1 million yuan (about US$32000).
The Ministry of Economic Affairs explained that since not all countries have adopted export control measures against russia, how to prevent and control goods from being transferred to russia through third countries has become a common challenge for all alliance countries. The Ministry of Economic Affairs continues to refer to the practices of international allied countries and include entities involved in the development of military expansion into our country's entity list (the list of entities related to russia currently reaches 1,900). For example, the russian company iMachine in this case was included in our country's entity list earlier this year, and Taiwanese companies on behalf of the company are prohibited from exporting all goods to the company.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs emphasized that it is currently cooperating with public associations to jointly strengthen publicity and require operators not to engage in illegal transshipment to third countries. It has held 16 publicity meetings in 2023, including 3 in December, with approximately 500 industry participants in attendance. In the future, we will strengthen publicity for machine tool manufacturers and require them to conduct due diligence before exporting.
Source: International Trade Administration of ROC (Taiwan)