China’s trade curbs on Taiwan after Pelosi visit are drop in the
Beijing’s new trade blocks against Taiwan affect about 0.04% of their two-way trade, making them more political than economic.
Beijing took action against Taiwan following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island earlier this month despite warnings from Beijing. That included suspensions of imports of Taiwanese citrus, frozen fish, sweets and biscuits and exports of natural sands to Taiwan.
Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy, but Beijing considers the island part of its territory and a breakaway province. China says Taiwan has no right to conduct foreign relations and warned for weeks against Pelosi’s visit.
What trade numbers show
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, after arriving at the president’s office on August 3, 2022, in Taipei, Taiwan. Pelosi’s visit infuriated China, which regards the self-ruled island as its own and responded with test launches of ballistic missiles over Taipei for the first time, as well as ditching some lines of dialogue with Washington.
Handout | Getty Images News | Getty Images
When it comes to Taiwan’s imports from mainland China, more than half of the $82 billion traded in 2021 were electrical machinery, electronic and technological parts as well as nuclear reactors and boilers.
As for Taiwan’s exports to China, 65% of them were also similar goods in electrical machinery, electronic and technological parts.
Drop in the ocean
On the other hand, the volume of trade in areas that Beijing has targeted is relatively small.
Exports of natural sand to Taiwan — which Beijing has targeted — were a drop in the ocean against the above figures. They amounted to about $3.5 million last year, data from the Taiwanese trade bureau showed.
They were also a small trade compared with natural sand exports from Australia and Vietnam, the biggest suppliers of natural sand to Taiwan last year. Together, they supplied about $64 million of the raw material used in construction and other industries, making up 70% of Taiwan’s purchases, according to its trade bureau.
Similarly, the targeted trade of citrus was valued at a relatively small $10 million last year, though mainland China was also Taiwan’s biggest citrus buyer, Taiwan’s trade data showed.
The agricultural products now in the headlines are only a fraction of Taiwan’s export basket. And so the headline impact on Taiwan won’t really be noticeable.
Nick Marro
Economist Intelligence Unit
Other targets such as Taiwan’s exports of bread, pastry, cakes and biscuits to mainland China were worth more than $50 million in total last year.
Beijing’s specific suspension of two kinds of frozen fishes, horse mackerel and largehead hairtail, were valued at over $3 million in 2021, according to Taiwan’s trade bureau.
“China’s economic retaliation against Taiwan is a long-standing strategy in its diplomatic playbook. That said, its decision to target relatively low-value trade items reflects the limits of its economic pressure toolbox,” said global trade…
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