Taiwan's economy minister says chipmaking supplier Unimicron must answer prosecutors over claims it relabeled China-made boards as Taiwanese — bad news for the company and for Taiwan's trade standing with Washington.

• Prosecutors searched Unimicron, a major maker of the boards that carry chips, over suspected origin-washing of China-made parts.
• Origin-washing means routing Chinese goods through another country and reselling them to the US as non-Chinese, which is illegal.
• A product can only change its origin label if it is truly transformed, not just lightly processed — Taiwan's rule requires added value above roughly a third.
• National security officials are running the case, with the finance ministry and other agencies involved, and the economy ministry is standing back.
• Even if Taiwan's own test is met, US customs decides what counts as Taiwanese for goods shipped to America.

Outlook: The case is now in the courts, and the bigger risk is that US customs takes its own harder view of what Taiwan-made really means.