How the ECFA Early Harvest List Works: What the List Covers, Who Applies for the Certificate, and Whether It Helps Personal Online Orders

Can You Use ECFA for Personal Online Orders? Bottom Line First

Personal small-value online orders can almost never use ECFA preferences in practice: a dutiable value of NT$2,000 or less is already exempt from import duty, commodity tax and business tax; above that, the agreement tariff rate is needed, and claiming it requires attaching the original ECFA Certificate of Origin, applied for by the exporter in China, to the customs declaration — ordinary online sellers will not obtain one for a single order. The issue is that the document cannot be obtained, not that the law forbids it.

• Layer one: goods at or below NT$2,000 are already tax-free, regardless of ECFA. Where the dutiable value is within NT$2,000, import duty, commodity tax and business tax are all exempt (Article 7 of the Regulations Governing Customs Clearance of Imported and Exported Postal Parcels), no matter the origin or whether ECFA is involved. Most personal online-order parcels fall within this range and never need the agreement tariff rate at all. (Note this is a threshold, not an allowance: once the value exceeds it, import duties and taxes are levied on the full amount.)
• Layer two: above NT$2,000, using the agreement tariff rate requires presenting an original Certificate of Origin. The ECFA certificate is a formal document that the Chinese exporter applies for, in the name of the exporter, with the local issuing authority, before export declaration — an ordinary Taobao-style C2C seller will not do this for a single consumer order. Without the certificate, customs assesses the standard Column 1 tariff rate.
• Layer three: the simplified declaration process used for express and postal parcels was never designed to check original documents item by item. Simplified declaration is a mechanism for speeding up clearance of low-value goods, and it is not compatible with the process of applying case by case, presenting an original certificate, and entering the certificate number in a specific field on the declaration.
• So the practical conclusion is: personal small-quantity online orders imported by express or post typically will not have an ECFA certificate, making it practically difficult to use the ECFA preference. The ones who actually benefit are commercial imports going through formal customs clearance, at larger quantities, for items genuinely on the Early Harvest List.

What ECFA and the Early Harvest List Are

The Early Harvest List is the list of goods with early tariff reductions set out in Annex 1 of the Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA): preferential rates have applied since January 1, 2011, and all items fell to zero duty from January 1, 2013. The current concordance table has 354 items on Taiwan’s side and 712 on Mainland China’s side (Customs Administration, Ministry of Finance, 2026-01-20). ECFA itself has not been terminated.

• The tariff-reduction schedule was completed long ago: the Early Harvest List was phased in starting January 1, 2011, and by January 1, 2013 at the latest, all items reached their final agreed rates (mostly 0%). There are no items today still being gradually reduced.
• The list runs in both directions, so it matters which direction a number refers to: when it took effect in 2011, Taiwan reduced tariffs on 267 items for Mainland China, and Mainland China reduced tariffs on 539 items for Taiwan — the two added together make 806, which is where the commonly cited figure of about 800 items comes from. But that is an old figure, and it lumps two opposite directions together.
• The current item counts are different: according to the latest official comparison table (updated January 20, 2026), Taiwan side has 354 items and Mainland China side has 712 items. The counts have grown over the years not because new goods were added, but because successive HS tariff-schedule revisions split the same item numbers into finer tariff lines; the official announcement explicitly states this does not affect the overall scope of the tariff concessions committed by both sides under the Early Harvest List. For example, mainland-side concession item 455 in the 2026 comparison table simply splits 8508.1100 "vacuum cleaners with self-contained electric motor" into 8508.1110 "electric cleaning robots" and 8508.1190 "other vacuum cleaners with self-contained electric motor".
• Why different numbers appear: the official item count is calculated by item serial number, while the tariff database used on this site is calculated by 11-digit tariff line — it is normal for one item to correspond to multiple lines. In the tariff database used here, the 11-digit tariff lines whose Column 2 agreement rate is marked CN total 577, which is a different unit of count from the official 354 — the two figures do not conflict with each other.

So: for anyone who has seen news about China suspending ECFA and worries that online orders will get more expensive, that worry is pointed in the wrong direction — what actually keeps the preference out of reach is the certificate issue described above, not these suspension measures.

What Goods Does the ECFA Early Harvest List Cover? A Chapter-by-Chapter Breakdown from This Site’s Tariff Database

On Taiwan’s side, the ECFA Early Harvest List consists mainly of industrial raw materials and machinery: of the 577 11-digit tariff lines marked CN in Column 2 of this site’s tariff database, Chapter 29 (organic chemicals) accounts for 224 (38.8%), and chemicals, machinery and electrical equipment together account for 438, about three-quarters; clothing, shoes, bags and food are not on the list (HowBridge tariff database, as of 2026-09-04).

Method: in the import tariff database used on this site, which is synchronized with the Directorate General of Customs, this is the total number of 11-digit tariff lines whose Column 2 (agreement rate) applicable country includes CN — 577 in total (as of 2026-09-04).

What Is an ECFA Certificate of Origin and Who Applies? How It Differs from an Ordinary CO

The ECFA certificate is the ECFA-specific Certificate of Origin (called a “Certificate of Origin” on the mainland side). The exporter in China must apply for it from the local issuing authority before the export declaration, and the Taiwan importer must attach the original to the customs declaration and declare its application to obtain the agreement tariff rate; an ordinary Certificate of Origin (CO), which only proves where the goods were made, cannot substitute for it.

• Applied for by the Chinese exporter, not the Taiwanese importer: the ECFA certificate must be applied for by the exporter, in the name of the exporter, with the local issuing authority before export declaration, along with supporting trade documents such as the commercial invoice. The Taiwanese importer only receives the certificate passed on by the exporter — a personal consumer has no way to apply for it directly.
• Issuing authorities: on the Mainland China side, two systems handle applications — the entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT). In practice, Taiwanese importers mostly rely on the Chinese exporter to apply on their behalf.
• The original must be presented at customs clearance: goods declared for the ECFA preferential tariff rate must be accompanied by the original, valid Certificate of Origin issued by a Mainland China issuing authority — a version the exporter has converted to PDF and printed is not accepted; on the import declaration, PT must be entered in the supplementary code field and the mainland certificate number in the "code designated by the competent authority" field. If the original cannot be presented immediately, under Article 18, Paragraph 3, Subparagraph 1 of the Customs Act the goods may be inspected and released first against a deposit calculated at the Column 1 rate that would otherwise apply, with a valid original certificate to be submitted within 4 months of release; however, if PT was not declared at the time of declaration and the certificate is only supplied afterwards, Customs will not accept it.
• Official name: the Taiwan-side form is titled "Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement Certificate of Origin", while the mainland side calls it a "Certificate of Origin" (official ECFA website, "Import and Export Customs Clearance Q&A"). Letter designations circulating online such as FORM F or FORM H are easily confused with certificates under other agreements. When communicating with a supplier, say "ECFA Certificate of Origin" directly, to avoid the wrong document being processed.

Rules of Origin: Being Shipped From China Does Not Automatically Make an Item Chinese-Origin

• ECFA uses interim rules of origin, dividing originating goods into three categories: ① wholly obtained (produced entirely within one party) ② produced entirely from originating materials of both parties ③ produced using non-originating materials but achieving substantial transformation.
• The third category, substantial transformation, is determined item by item under the product-specific rules of origin, with common criteria including a change in tariff classification, a regional value content (RVC) reaching a certain percentage, or a specific processing operation; there are also de minimis provisions under which goods may still be considered originating when the value share of non-originating materials is extremely low.
• So for a third-country brand product manufactured in China, what matters is the degree of processing: if the manufacturing process performed in China meets the substantial-transformation threshold for that item, it may still be treated as Mainland China-origin and qualify; if it is only simple processing, packaging, or relabeling, it does not qualify. The nationality of the brand and the origin as determined by customs are two different things.
• This kind of item-by-item determination is something an ordinary consumer practically cannot complete alone — this is another reason, mentioned earlier, that personal online orders find it difficult to claim ECFA.

Legal basis and procedures are subject to the latest announcements from the Directorate General of Customs and the International Trade Administration; for individual cases, please consult the competent authority or a licensed customs broker.

How to Check Whether What You Bought Is on the List

The only reliable way to check whether your product is on the ECFA Early Harvest List is to first find the correct 11-digit tariff line, then see whether Column 2 for that line is marked CN; obtaining a certificate only saves duty when Column 2 shows CN and the Column 1 rate is above 0%. Do not judge by the product name or the seller’s claims.

• Step one: find the correct tariff line. Classify based on the material, use, and specifications of the product — not by brand or the marketplace category. If classification is in doubt, an application can be made to the Directorate General of Customs for an advance tariff classification ruling.
• Step two: check Column 2, the agreement rate column. The Taiwan import tariff schedule has three rate columns (Customs Administration, Ministry of Finance explanation): Column 1 applies to WTO members and countries or territories granting Taiwan reciprocal treatment (mainland China falls under this column); Column 2 applies to specific goods from certain least-developed or developing countries or territories, and to specific goods from countries or territories that have signed a free trade agreement with Taiwan; and Column 3 applies only when neither of the first two columns can be used. The ECFA preference appears in Column 2, marked CN for the applicable country (as observed in our tariff database).
• Step three: compare the gap between the two columns. Having CN in Column 2 does not necessarily mean big savings — of the 577 lines counted on this site, 37 already have a Column 1 rate of 0%, meaning they are duty-free even without ECFA, in which case applying for the certificate is pointless. The real difference lies in the other 540.
• Official channels: the International Trade Administration ECFA section can confirm whether an item is on the Early Harvest List; the Directorate General of Customs tariff-rate lookup system shows the rates in each column and the import regulations for that line. Cross-checking both is the safest approach.
• The tool on this site: the tariff lookup page here lists Column 1, Column 2, and import regulations together, allowing a quick first screening — actual applicability is still subject to customs determination.

Reminder: a tariff line determines not just the tax rate but also the import regulations (whether codes such as MW0 or C02 are listed). Check the import regulations at the same time as the rate — otherwise the tax might be calculated correctly while the item cannot even be shipped at all.

What Happens If You Get an ECFA Declaration Wrong? Three Common Mistakes and Their Consequences

Claiming the ECFA agreement tariff rate is a declaration, and errors fall into three levels: omitting the certificate only means losing the preference, with duty charged at the Column 1 rate; documents that do not match the declaration mean the preference is not applied; submitting a false certificate is the most serious — under Article 37, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 3 of the Customs Anti-smuggling Act, a fine of up to five times the evaded import duty may be imposed, or the goods confiscated, or both.

To be clear: Article 37 itself is an administrative penalty (fine and confiscation), not a criminal provision — it should not be described as leading to a prison sentence; whether any other legal liability is also involved is determined case by case by the competent authority. Also, Article 37, Paragraph 1 does not list origin as a separate item on its own; in practice, a fraudulent certificate of origin is handled under Item 3, fraudulent documents — this distinction matters when citing the article number. What really needs to be remembered is: the certificate is proof the exporter provides about the actual origin, not a customs-clearance prop that can be bought and sold.

ECFA Frequently Asked Questions