U.S. Will Impose Trade Sanctions Against Taiwan to Protect Wildlife : Asia: Ban is prompted by the nation’s failure to halt the use of tiger and rhinoceros products.

In the first American trade sanctions aimed at protecting endangered species, the Clinton Administration said Monday that it will impose penalties against Taiwan for its failure to halt the use of tiger and rhinoceros products.

The sanctions, the first against Taiwan for any reason, will bar American imports of wildlife products from the Asian nation. Their use reflects the growing attention being paid to environmental issues in world trade.

“The world’s tiger and rhinoceros populations remain gravely endangered and will likely be extinct in the next two to five years if the trade in their parts and products, fueled by market demand in consuming countries, is not eliminated,” President Clinton said in a letter to Congress on Monday announcing the decision.

The import ban affects not just products that use tiger and rhinoceros parts but all Taiwanese products made from wild species, including lizard, crocodile and snakeskin shoes and coral and mollusk jewelry.

The tiger and rhinoceros parts are believed in Asia to have medicinal and aphrodisiac properties and are found in pharmacies there.

Details of the trade sanctions will be prepared by the office of the U.S. trade representative. Administration officials said they will cut off about $20 million in trade with Taiwan, the estimated value of the tiger and rhino parts.

While the sanctions imposed to protect wildlife are unprecedented, they will affect less than 0.1% of Taiwan’s exports to the United States, which are valued at $25 billion.

Citing legislation approved in 1978 but never invoked, the Administration first warned Taiwan and China a year ago that unless they came up with plans to reduce trade in parts cut out of endangered species, the United States would invoke sanctions.

While finding that China had made progress, although stronger actions were needed, an international committee on endangered species determined that Taiwan had failed to meet even minimum requirements.

Clinton said China had “consolidated much of its stocks of rhinoceros and tiger parts and products,” and had “used radio, television, newspaper and poster announcements--as well as burnings of rhino horn and tiger bone--to educate its population on new laws and the need to protect wildlife.”

As a result of such progress, import prohibitions on China were not warranted, the President said, avoiding exacerbation of the Administration’s deep disputes with Beijing over human rights.

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Clinton had been under pressure from several members of the House and Senate to take action against both Taiwan and China. In a March 18 letter to the President, 39 lawmakers said China “has been unable to account for over three tons of registered rhinoceros horn and apparently allowed the export of over one ton of tiger bone to Korea” after a ban on such exports went into effect.

Sen. James M. Jeffords (R-Vt.), who led the effort, expressed approval Monday, and an aide said the senator agreed that China’s progress had been sufficient to remove the immediate threat of sanctions. Clinton’s decision, Jeffords said, “may be the one step necessary to halt the rapid decline in rhinoceros and tiger populations and protect them from inevitable extinction.”

Whether the measures taken by Clinton will be sufficient remains uncertain, because there is considerable economic pressure to keep up the harvest of the dwindling supplies. Tiger parts can bring up to $25,000 and crushed rhino horn brings varying prices, said Ken Connolly, Jefford’s aide specializing in environmental issues.

Connolly said no more than 5,000 tigers remain in Asia--a decline of 95% in the 20th Century--and three of eight known tiger species are extinct. The White House said the rhinoceros population has declined 90% over the past 23 years, to a present level of 10,000.

The Administration’s action drew praise from environmentalists, who also said more pressure is needed.

The African Wildlife Foundation encouraged Clinton to move against others trading in rhino and tiger parts, including Hong Kong, North and South Korea and Yemen.

Samuel LaBudde of the San Francisco-based Earth Island Institute said the sanctions will be “perhaps the most significant event for species protection to occur in 20 years.” He said that unless China moves effectively, the remaining 150 to 200 Siberian tigers could be extinct after next winter.