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Tariffs on some imported fruits halved

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Vice Premier Jiang Yi-huah, who doubles as the convener of the Executive Yuan's price stabilization task force, announced today that he has required the Council of Agriculture (COA) to halve the tariffs on certain imported fruits which are not currently in season but are in great demand. The measure will last two months and could be extended depending on the supply and market prices of said fruits at that time.

The policy is meant to stabilize domestic fruit prices and relieve consumers' economic burdens while also taking into account domestic fruit farmers' rights and interests, Jiang said.

According to Article 71 of the Customs Act, "to cope with special domestic and/or international economic situations, to adjust the supply of goods, and to provide industries with appropriate operational conditions, customs duties or tariff quotas imposed on imported goods may be adjusted up or down within the range of 50 percent of the tariff rate or quota quantity prescribed in the Customs Imports Tariff Schedule … The time period applicable to the tariff rate or quota quantity adjustment shall not exceed one year."

COA statistics show that this year's fruit production was seriously impacted by the torrential rain in June and typhoons Saola and Tembin in July and August, respectively, causing domestic fruit prices to soar: the average fruit price at Taipei's vegetable and fruit wholesale market exceeded NT$40 (US$1.35) per kilogram in both August and September. The monthly total trading volume of fruit at the market was 15,675 tonnes in September, a year-on-year decrease of 16 percent and a five-year low; in turn, the market's average fruit price that month, NT$47.2/kg (US$1.59/kg), represented a year-on-year increase of 60 percent and a five-year high.

To mitigate this supply deficiency and ease customers' burdens, Jiang convened the price stabilization task force yesterday. The group concluded that some domestic fruit, including bananas, Chinese honey oranges and sweet oranges, would not abound until late October or even mid-November, and the government should halve tariff for some kinds of fruit which are in great demand but are not in season in Taiwan, such as apples, sweet peaches and kiwi fruit, for two months or more.

In addition, the vice premier asked the Council of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance to amend the regulations governing the Customs Import Tariff to include fruit as an item whose tariff could be immediately reduced in response to typhoons, torrential rain or other natural disasters, saying that the current agricultural produce adjustment mechanism's ability to stabilize commodity prices is limited because it only covers vegetables.

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