The Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to set up a trade retaliation mechanism by following the example of the US Section 301
E030413Y8 May. 2003（E44）
The senior officials of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (“MOEA”) yesterday indicated that this county needs to imitate countries such as France, the U.S. and Europe, etc. to announce annually a “National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers to Taiwan” so that this country may study to remove such countries’ trade barrier to Taiwan and to enhance the competition capability of Taiwan’s international trade. The relevant units have started evaluating the feasibility of setting up a mechanism similar to the US. 301 trade retaliation mechanism.
The officials of the MOEA expressed that many countries such as the US, Korea and Japan will conduct annual investigations on unfair treatment encountered by the exporters of their countries. Among these countries, the US has the most complete trade retaliation system. United States Trade Representative announces the National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers in the end of March each year, and the Special 301 Retaliation List in the end of April each year to request for consultation to open the market of various countries and strive for business opportunities for enterprises. In addition to Section 301 of the Trade Act that can pressure trading counterparts to make negotiations and remove various trade barriers, the US also applies Section 337 of the Tariff Act that provides powerful border management measures. Such provision gives the U.S. government the right to immediately adopt retaliatory measures against products infringing on the U.S. IP rights. Although Item 6, Article 6 of the Foreign Trade Law of this country has provided the legal source for the government to take retaliation against unfair trade, the government has never applied such provision to date.
The above officials mentioned that even Korea and Japan have had border investigation measures similar to those provided in Section 337 of the Tariff Act, however, Taiwan still hasn’t had any relevant legal source. The MOEA evaluated that the legal source must be added to Article 18 of the Foreign Trade Law and special chapters should be added to the Regulations for Handling Cases about Remedy on Goods Import. The MOEA has drafted the relevant project and will begin the drafting procedure for formal rules after the policies are determined.
