Taiwan Rep / Notes

Taiwan bars most Chinese fasteners at the border. So how did China ship it 9,800 tonnes in 2025?

Taiwan's general import list keeps out Chinese nuts, washers, rivets, wood and self-tapping screws, and ordinary steel bolts. China's customs still reported sending Taiwan 9,778 tonnes of fasteners in 2025. Both are true, and the gap between them shows what the border rule can and can't tell you about relabeling.

Updated October 13, 2026. Import rules from the International Trade Administration's open data and Taiwan's customs tariff file; trade figures from UN Comtrade, read the same day.

If you buy fasteners from Taiwan to avoid a duty on Chinese ones, sooner or later someone asks whether your bolts are really Chinese bolts in a Taiwan box. One answer you may hear from the Taiwan side is that Taiwan doesn't even allow Chinese fasteners in. That's mostly right as a description of the import rules. It doesn't settle the question, because the rules have exceptions and goods can move through Taiwan without being imported for sale there. This note covers what the rules say line by line, what China's own export data shows, how both can be true, and what it means for the paperwork you ask for.

What Taiwan's import rules say, line by line

Taiwan controls imports from mainland China under the Regulations Governing Trade between the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區貿易許可辦法). Article 7 starts from a ban: mainland goods may not be imported except in listed cases. The main case is goods the Ministry of Economic Affairs has announced as permitted, with or without conditions. Article 8 limits that list to goods that don't endanger national security and don't seriously harm a related industry.

The result is marked on every line of Taiwan's import tariff. Code MW0 means mainland goods may not be imported. MP1 means they may be imported only under listed conditions; an "EX" after the tariff number means only the specific goods named are allowed. A line with neither code is open to them. For heading 7318 the Trade Administration's lists give this:

The banned lines carry an effective date of January 1, 1989 in the Trade Administration's file. Across all of Chapter 73, its summary counts 49 lines closed to Chinese goods, 13 conditional and 140 open. So for the parts most buyers order, a hex bolt, a nut, a washer, a self-tapping screw, a Taiwan company can't simply import the Chinese version and sell it.

What China says it shipped

The rules describe what may enter. China's customs reports what it sent. UN Comtrade carries China's exports to Taiwan under partner code 490 ("Other Asia, nes"), the code it uses for Taiwan. For heading 7318:

"Lines Taiwan bans" adds up the six-digit codes that are MW0 in full: 7318.11 to .14, .16, .21 to .23 and .29. 7318.15 mixes a banned line with the cast-iron exception, so it sits in its own column; the remaining few hundred tonnes a year are cotter pins under 7318.24. In 2025 the largest banned item was nuts, 755 tonnes.

Two things stand out. China's reported shipments more than doubled from 2019 to 2025, with most of the growth in screws and bolts and in the open 7318.19 line. And roughly 2,000 tonnes a year went under codes that are closed under Taiwan's general list, so they could only have entered through one of the law's exceptions, or not been imported into Taiwan's market at all.

Now put that next to Taiwan's exports. Partner countries reported importing 1,293,906 tonnes of 7318 goods from Taiwan in 2025, and that count is still incomplete because not every country had reported. China's 9,778 tonnes is under 1% of it. In other words, even if every tonne China reported had been repacked and re-exported as Taiwanese, which the data doesn't show, it would be a small fraction of what Taiwan ships.

How a ban and 9,800 tonnes fit together

Article 7 itself explains part of it. Besides the permitted list, it lets these mainland goods in:

• raw materials and components imported by bonded factories for processing and export, and goods imported for reconditioning (重整) and then entirely re-exported (item 6);
• the same for companies in technology industrial parks and science parks (item 7);
• samples for a company's own research and development (item 3), and goods specially approved by the Ministry (item 13).

These aren't automatic. Article 9 requires a permit from the Trade Administration for imports under these items, except where an item has been announced as exempt; for some items, park companies apply to their park administration instead. The import conditions for items 2, 3, 6 and 13 are set by the Trade Administration, and those for item 7 by the park authorities (Article 7, paragraph 2).

A fastener bought from China as a component for a machine or electronic product built in a science park, then exported, can fit those exceptions with the right permit. So can a sample for the company's own research. Goods in the open 7318.19 line need no exception at all.

Here's what's established and what isn't. Known: ordinary Chinese steel bolts, nuts and washers are not on Taiwan's general import list, and China reports shipping a few thousand tonnes a year anyway. China's figure is what Chinese customs recorded as exported to Taiwan; that isn't the same as goods of Chinese origin, or goods cleared into Taiwan. Inferred: much of it likely goes into bonded or park processing, permitted lines, or samples, because those are the routes the rules leave open. Unknown: the actual split. China's figure counts what left China for Taiwan; it doesn't say which Taiwan channel received it, and Taiwan's own import statistics by origin sit behind a CAPTCHA we didn't try to get past.

What it means for your paperwork

The ban narrows the question; it doesn't answer it. Goods that pass through Taiwan in transit, or sit in a bonded zone, aren't imported for domestic sale, and trade statistics record what was declared, so they can't separate a correctly declared shipment from a misdeclared one. The EU and US decide origin under their own rules anyway, as our EU duty note and certificate of origin note explain, and Taiwan's own rules say sorting, repacking and relabeling don't make goods Taiwanese.

So "Taiwan doesn't allow Chinese fasteners in" is a fair first answer, but it isn't evidence about your shipment. The evidence is the same set as always:

• the factory registration of the plant that formed and threaded your parts (very small plants may be below the registration threshold, as our registry note explains);
• the wire rod purchase invoices and the steel mill's certificates for each heat;
• a production or lot record linking those heats to your lot numbers and cartons;
• if your supplier is a trading company, which plant made the goods, in writing.

One caveat runs the other way. The ban is on finished Chinese fasteners. Chinese wire rod is a separate set of lines, most of them also closed under the general list, and Taiwan bolts may be made from imported steel, which is the subject of our wire rod note. A bolt formed in Taiwan from imported rod normally counts as Taiwan origin under Taiwan's general rule, though the importing country applies its own.

Back to the 9,778 tonnes. They don't show that Chinese bolts are being passed off as Taiwanese, and the border rule doesn't show that they can't be. What separates a Taiwan bolt from a relabeled one is a forming line, a heat number and a lot record, and those are things you check at the plant.

Mirror data compares two countries' customs records, which differ in timing, valuation and coverage; some reporters' weights are estimated or missing, so the 1.29 million tonne total is a floor. China reports exports by destination, not by the Taiwan customs regime the goods entered. This is a practical guide for buyers, not legal or customs advice.

Sources

• Regulations Governing Trade between the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區貿易許可辦法), Articles 7, 8 and 9, amended February 19, 2024
• Mainland goods not permitted for import (大陸物品不准許輸入項目, MW0), International Trade Administration, via data.gov.tw
• Mainland goods conditionally permitted for import (大陸物品有條件准許輸入項目, MP1), International Trade Administration, via data.gov.tw
• Mainland goods permitted for import (大陸物品准許輸入項目), International Trade Administration, via data.gov.tw
• Chapters 1 to 97: mainland goods open and not open, counts, International Trade Administration, via data.gov.tw
• Customs import tariff file (海關進口稅則資料), Customs Administration, via data.gov.tw
• UN Comtrade: exports reported by China to partner 490, HS 731811 to 731829, 2019 to 2025; imports of HS 7318 from partner 490 reported by all countries, 2025; read October 13, 2026
• A Taiwan certificate of origin says "Taiwan", Taiwan Rep, for Taiwan's origin rules (Regulations Governing Issuance of Certificates of Origin, Article 5)