USTR notices a 10% tariff on Taiwan under Section 301

COMPETITIVE EDGE: The 10 percent would not be stacked on MFN duties, placing Taiwan in a better position than rivals like China, academics said The Office of the US Trade Representative’s (USTR) announcement of a 10 percent tariff on certain Taiwanese products — which was to take effect yesterday US time — is not final, but would depend on a separate investigation into alleged structural excess capacity and production in Taiwan’s manufacturing sector, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said yesterday.The USTR in March announced that it had launched an investigation into excess capacity and production, as well as another probe into whether 60 economies had taken steps to ban imports of goods produced with forced labor, citing Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.The probes were intended to d