Taiwan Expands Russia, Belarus Export Controls to Align With US, Others

Taiwan this week expanded its export controls against Russia and Belarus to cover a range of new items that may be used for Russia’s war in Ukraine, including “high-tech” military items. The island added 52 new items to the export control list, saying they are “primarily related” to “nuclear energy substances,” chemicals, machine tools and other “miscellaneous goods and materials.” The changes took effect Jan. 4.

Taiwan said the new restrictions further align it with other countries -- including the U.S., the EU, Japan and the U.K. -- that are imposing export controls against Russia, which are “preventing high-tech goods from being exported for military use.” Taiwan said it previously expanded its export controls to cover certain computer information, sensors, lasers and aerospace items, but it decided to restrict more items after speaking with “industrial associations and manufacturers” late last year.

The latest restrictions affect “law enforcement strike weapons” and “restraint tools,” including batons, shackles, handcuffs, straitjackets, electric shock handcuff belts and “torture tools,” according to an unofficial translation of a notice from Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade. Taiwan also imposed controls on “high-strength fibers and filamentous materials” and certain chemicals, including ricin, “saxitoxin sea snail toxin,” botulinum toxin, nitrogen trifluoride, ammonium nitrate and nitric acid. Certain machine tools are also restricted, including “computer numerical control lathes, comprehensive processing machines, computer numerical control grinding machines, electrical discharge processing machines, compound rotary tables for five-axis machining, swing spindles, and controllers.”

Taiwan said the new controls cover Export Control Classification Numbers listed in “Categories 0, 1, and 2,” referring to the Commerce Department's Commerce Control List. The new restrictions make its “controls substantially equal to those of the EU and US, as well as in line with those of democratic allies,” Taiwan said. Commerce in April expanded its export license requirements for Russia and Belarus to cover all items on the CCL, further widening restrictions that previously only applied to categories 3-9 of the CCL (see 2204080062).

Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security hasn't added Taiwan to Supplement No. 3 to Part 746 of the Export Administration Regulations, which lists countries excluded from certain U.S. licensing requirements because they impose “substantially similar export controls” on Russia and Belarus. The list of U.S. allies includes the U.K., Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands and others. A BIS spokesperson didn't comment.

Taiwan said it’s working with businesses that rely on the Russian and Belarusian markets to help them diversify their exports to other regions. “In light of this latest amendment, [Taiwan] urges exporters to comply with export control regulations and conduct due diligence before carrying out transactions to Russia and Belarus,” it said.

Taiwan stressed that applications for “high-tech commodity” exports to Russia and Belarus will be “strictly licensed.” When reviewing incense applications, Taiwan said, it “will take into consideration whether exporters received payments prior to the aforementioned announcement, and whether end uses and end users are involved or not in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”