Premier Su Tseng-chang says that the Cabinet will shield Taiwanese businesses from negative effects of international sanctions against Russia. The United States, the EU and the UK, among others, have begun imposing harsh economic sanctions against Russia, after it invaded Ukraine last Thursday.
Those sanctions include cutting off Russian banks from the international SWIFT payment system. This development is expected to have major consequences for international trade.
On Monday morning, Taiwan’s premier said the government will protect local businesses from the economic effects of the sanctions. Su met with economic, agriculture and finance officials on Monday to assess how the sanctions might affect Taiwan.
The premier is ordering Taiwan’s government agencies to monitor the effect on supplies of raw materials used in Taiwan. He says the government will compensate any businesses that suffer losses due to poor government handling of the sanctions.
Economic and agriculture officials say that Taiwan’s trade volume with Russia is relatively small. They say that Russia is not a primary energy or agriculture trade partner for Taiwan, so the sanctions are not a major concern for Taiwan in the short term.
However, officials say that in the long term, sanctions may affect global trade and that they will monitor fluctuations in energy and food prices.