President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was evasive yesterday when asked if a planned economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with Beijing would lead to a “one China market,” but said the pact would eventually establish “something similar to a free-trade area.”
The two sides of the Taiwan Strait would form such an area in the spirit of the WTO, which both countries belong to, Ma said in an interview with the Taipei Times.
“A free-trade agreement [FTA] or any similar trade agreement have many forms,” he said.
“Some are called FTAs and some are called economic partnership arrangements, but they are all regional free-trade agreements under the WTO,” he said.
Ma said the reason that his administration wants the pact with Beijing is because China is Taiwan’s biggest trading partner and that once an ECFA is signed, the obstruction to Taiwan’s effort to sign FTAs with ASEAN countries would be reduced.
“We have encountered numerous obstacles over the past years [in signing FTAs]” Ma said. “China is one of the major factors.”
Major export partners, such as Japan and South Korea, totally ignored Taiwan’s push for FTAs with them because of China’s intimidation, he said.
Taiwan also has to aggressively participate in regional economic integration to avoid being “isolated economically,” he said.
“Signing the ECFA is just the beginning,” he said, expressing the hope that closer trade ties with China would help Taiwan clear some hurdles in negotiations on trade pacts with other countries.
There is no guarantee, however, that it will open opportunities for more FTA talks, he said.
Ma said he realized it was not Beijing’s policy to help Taiwan ink FTAs with other countries, but he said if Taiwan continues to be isolated internationally, it would be hard to boost cross-strait relations.
Ma has promised not to allow the import of more agricultural products and workers from China, and yesterday he denied the government would be coerced into fully opening the markets in 10 years. Any country facing such a difficulty could explain the problem to the WTO, he said.
Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 states that the “reasonable length of time” for opening markets should exceed 10 years only in exceptional cases.
In cases where members believe that 10 years would be insufficient, they have to provide a full explanation to the Council for Trade in Goods on the need for a longer period.
The WTO does not require any member to open its labor market, he said.
“The labor issue is not included in the regulations of the WTO. Not a single WTO member is forced to import laborers,” Ma said.
There has been widespread concern among the public and economists that an ECFA with China could exacerbate Taiwan’s already vulnerable labor market and agriculture sector.
At a separate setting yesterday, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said the first round of official ECFA negotiations would be held at the end of this month as scheduled.
Huang Chih-peng (黃志鵬), head of the Bureau of Foreign Trade, and Tang Wei (唐煒), director of the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Department under China’s Ministry of Commerce, will chair the negotiations, Shih said.
The agenda of the first round will not touch on substantive issues such as the proposed “early harvest list” of industries that would be first to benefit from an ECFA and only general suggestions regarding the procedure will be discussed, Shih said.
The Cabinet intends to keep the process of negotiations very transparent with the participation of the legislature, Shih said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79