The Customs Administration of the Ministry of Finance states that the Customs Import Tariffs amendment bill has been drafted based on the following intentions: to expand benefits from the Economic Cooperation Agreement (ECA) between Taiwan and Paraguay and to implement our tariff reduction commitments; to minimize the mobile pollution sources of vehicles in response to the air pollution prevention action scheme, and to accelerate the replacement of Phrase I to Phrase III large-scale diesel vehicles; and to promote trade liberalization gradually and to be in line with international standards. Since the bill was promulgated by the President on Jul. 24, 2019, the new tariffs on items included in the ECA between Taiwan and Paraguay are expected to enter into force 30 days after the two contracting parties have both completed their necessary domestic procedures and notified each other formally through diplomatic channels, while the revised tariffs on the other items will take effect and start to be applied on Jul. 26, 2019 officially. The relevant information on the amendment is available at the Gazette website of the Office of the President (http://www.president.gov.tw/).

　　The application of the revised tariff rates shall be governed by Article 2 of the Enforcement Rules of the Customs Act; for imported goods, the amendment shall apply from the arrival date of the means of transportation. However, according to Article 58 of the Act, the date of application for release from the warehouse for import shall apply to goods stored in a bonded warehouse; according to Paragraph 2, Article 59 of the Act, the date of customs declaration shall apply to goods approved for release from a bonded factory; Article 60 stipulates that the date of application for release from a logistics center for import shall apply to goods stored in a logistics center. According to Article 6 of the Enforcement Rules, “the arrival date of the transportation means” refers to the date on which the vessel arrives at the port of entry and files the import manifest with Customs for sea cargo, and the date on which the plane arrives at the airport and files the import manifest with Customs for air cargo.