President Cites Taiwan Unfair Trade Practices

President Reagan said Friday that Taiwan has engaged in unfair trading practices and directed the U.S. trade office to develop retaliatory measures.

In exercising his authority to order retaliation under the Trade Act of 1974, Reagan charged in a statement that Taiwan has reneged on an agreement to treat American exports the same as those from developing countries for purposes of calculating customs tariffs.

Reagan said the system Taiwan uses to calculate duties on U.S. products violates a “bilateral exchange of letters” in 1979.

He said Taiwan should have implemented the obligations to which it had agreed but that, instead, effective July 1, it began a system that has led to higher-than-expected duties on U.S. exports.

White House spokesman Dale Petroskey said he could not say immediately which U.S. products were affected by Taiwan’s system, or whether the system applied to U.S. exports across-the-board.

“I have determined that use of a duty-paying system to calculate customs duties by the authorities on Taiwan violates a trade agreement and is unjustifiable and unreasonable and a burden or restriction on U.S. commerce,” Reagan said.

“I have determined to retaliate commensurately against Taiwan so long as it fails to meet its obligations in this regard and am directing the United States trade representative to propose an appropriate method for such retaliation,” he said.