Fruit Fight: The Impacts of China's Continued Use of Agriculture Trade Policy Regarding Taiwan

China’s most recent trade policy suspends tariff exemptions on 34 Taiwanese agricultural products, including fruit, vegetables, and aquatic plants (Flickr).

After China resumed imports of Taiwanese pomelos in early September, Beijing announced a new policy suspending tariff exemptions on Taiwanese agricultural items on September 19, 2024. Pomelos are the latest target in what Taiwanese officials have called politically motivated bans regarding fruit— including pineapples, mangos, and wax apples— grown in Taiwan and exported to Mainland China. The latest policy change states that 34 Taiwanese agricultural items will be excluded from tariff exemptions beginning on September 25, 2024. 

China is Taiwan’s largest trading partner, offering Taiwan many trading incentives including tariff exemptions on fruits and vegetables. These policies have had such a large positive impact on the Taiwanese economy that China frequently uses trading policies around agricultural goods as political tools against Taiwan. China’s newly announced suspension of tariff exemption on 34 agricultural goods limits the ability of Taiwanese farmers to export their products to Mainland China on an even wider scale than the previous bans on singular fruits seen previously.

A Chinese import ban hit pineapples in March of 2021, and wax apples and sugar apples followed in September 2021. The recent restriction on the importation of pomelos began “just hours” after United States Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan on August 3, 2022. China cited “biosecurity and public health concerns” as the reason for the ban. However, journalists and Taiwanese officials claim that the bans could be addressing Chinese reunification goals from two angles: political allyship and economic advantage. In his recent address, Chen Binhua (陳斌華), a spokesperson for Beijing's State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, referenced “the desire of KMT figures in Hualien County to resume exports as well as firmly opposing Taiwanese independence.” Further supporting this claim is that  China only lifted the ban for 16 pomelo producers in Hualien. Hualien is just one of many districts in Taiwan that grow pomelos; others include Keelung, Yilan, Miaoli, New Taipei City, and Changhua. However, according to The Diplomat, “Hualien County has become a nexus for political and economic connections with the PRC” in recent years. The lifting of the ban only in this region  could signify praise for Hualien’s growing loyalty to the PRC.

There is also an economic argument for China’s decision. President Lai spoke on the matter, stating that “China is using specific trade or businesses to create division in society,” undermining mutual respect and destabilizing the region. The ban was notably lifted right before the Mid-Autumn festival, which took place on September 17 this year. Pomelos are traditionally eaten at the Mid-Autumn festival; therefore, export numbers were especially high once the ban was lifted. Since the majority of Taiwanese pomelos are shipped to China— 4,821 metric tons out of 7,062 metric tons in 2021— the timing of the lifting of the ban only continued to emphasize the importance of Chinese business to Taiwanese pomelo farmers. The swift installment of the tariff suspension is bound to wreak further havoc on farmers’ profits, which have not had time to recover from previous agricultural trade policies. 

In an interview with the Washington Post, pomelo farmer Jhan Jun-hao stated that “Taiwan grows more fruit than it can eat, so that’s why we need to sell abroad.” He hopes to establish a larger range of international markets but is “not optimistic” due to high barriers to entry. Specifically, in Southeast Asia, prices for tropical fruits are much cheaper, and fresh fruits will not travel beyond the countries nearest to Taiwan. Therefore, if China bans certain fruits, Taiwan’s markets are often limited to South Korea, Japan, and itself. In an interview with Vox, Hsieh Jin-hung, a sugar apple farmer in Taiwan whose income dropped more than 50 percent after the import ban in 2021, explains that Taiwanese farmers “need to help each other sell fruit without losing money. This is what we have to work hard on right now.”

While the most recent agricultural trade policy is yet to go into effect, Beijing cites “Taiwan's unilateral adoption of discriminatory measures such as bans and restrictions on the export of mainland products” as the reason for this change in policy, and it is bound to have a large and lasting effect on Taiwanese farmers still recovering from the economic losses of the previous policies.