Taiwan says machine tool exports to Russia ‘dropped to zero’ after controls

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs said machine tool exports to Russia have ceased following expanded export controls, responding to a report identifying Taiwan among Russia’s top five machine tool suppliers.

The ministry said it ‘has taken a number of actions, including placing 77 machine tool tariff items (HS Code) under export control since March 8 this year.’

‘Since the implementation of the aforementioned expanded control measures, the number of China’s machine tools exported to Russia has dropped to zero,’ the ministry said in a Chinese-language statement, 1 November. It added this was evidence that its ‘control measures have achieved initial results.’

The statement followed a recent report by UK think tank RUSI that found 6.08 percent of 2,113 companies that supplied machine tools to Russia — during 2023 and the first quarter of 2024 — were from Taiwan.

The ministry said it has ‘significantly increased the first-time violation penalties for exports to Russia and Belarus by more than 15 times’ to strengthen deterrence. Officials have conducted 19 publicity seminars this year, some featuring export control officials from the American Institute in Taiwan (‘AIT/T’) to help companies ‘understand the latest international trends and prevent violations.’

According to the ministry, it ‘continues to cooperate with countries with similar concepts’ on export controls and will ‘adjust export control measures on a rolling basis to respond to the changing situation.’

https://www.moea.gov.tw/Mns/populace/news/News.aspx?kind=1&menu_id=40&news_id=117825