TAA-compliant SSDs
Storage manufactured entirely within regions approved by the Trade Agreements Act
TAA-compliant industrial and enterprise storage solutions
Our flagship enterprise and industrial SSDs are manufactured in
Taiwan and fully compliant with the Trade Agreements Act (TAA). This
means not only high-quality manufacturing and straightforward
customs processes, but also that our products are ideal for systems
that require TAA-compliance.
Among our TAA-compliant products
are our PCIe Gen4 SSDs in the PI4 and PE4
series. For our other products, TAA-compliant manufacturing is
available upon request as we strive to
meet every customer’s demands.
Here is an overview of the country of origin for different key components and manufacturing processes in our TAA-compliant SSDs
DRAM
Made in Taiwan, Singapore or the United States
NAND flash
Made in Taiwan, Singapore, Japan or the United States
Controller
Made in Taiwan
Final assembly
Made in Taiwan
Testing and validation
Made in Taiwan
What is TAA-compliance?
TAA refers specifically to the United States Trade Agreements Act of 1979 which implemented wide-ranging trade agreements the United
States had entered with countries and jurisdictions around the
world. The legislation made it possible for offices of the
United States government to source products from organizations
in places covered by the TAA, i.e., countries and jurisdictions
beyond the United States itself.
The TAA is particularly important because the General Services Administration requires that products used for its contracts are
TAA-compliant, making TAA-compliance a near-requirement for U.S.
government contracts unless special exemptions are granted. For
products destined for non-civilian use, TAA-compliance is
therefore an important requirement. For other applications, while not required, it is
nevertheless a symbol of products sourced from reliable trade
partners.
What is a TAA-compliant product?
In practice, TAA-compliance means that products are manufactured
or substantially transformed in the United States or any of the
countries and jurisdictions covered by the Trade Agreements Act
of 1979.
The provision stating that the product must be at
least
substantially transformed
in a TAA-country mitigates the potential loophole where products
manufactured in a non-TAA-compliant country undergo simple
alteration in a TAA-country to achieve TAA-compliance. With the
TAA, this is not possible as has been proven in multiple cases
in U.S. courts. For example, simply loading SSD firmware onto a
non-TAA-compliant SSD in a TAA-country would not make the SSD in
question TAA-compliant. Put simply, the TAA sets a high bar for
“substantial transformation,” demanding products that are
predominantly sourced and manufactured in eligible countries.
Countries covered by TAA
The Trade Agreements Act casts a wide net, allowing sourcing of
products from a large part of the world, notably all WTO members
part of the
Agreement on Government Procurement
(WTO GPA), including the European Union, Canada, Japan,
Singapore, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. Other groups are
also included, such as countries the United States has free
trade agreements (FTAs) with,
Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) countries, and least developed
countries (LDCs).
However, the TAA also excludes notable
countries with large populations such as Brazil, China, India,
Indonesia, Pakistan among others. The exclusion of China and
India, in particular, may cause issues with sourcing of
technology products in government contracts.
Interested in learning more about sourcing TAA-compliant flash storage products?
TAA-compliant SSD highlights
PE4 series
The PE4 series is Exascend’s enterprise-grade lineup of high-performing PCIe 4.0 devices. With extreme sustained read and write speeds along with Exascend’s technologies, the PE4 series brings the PCIe 4.0 interface to the next level.
