Taipei and Beijing will hold the first round of official negotiations on an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) tomorrow in Beijing, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said yesterday.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration hopes to ink the proposed pact in May during the fifth round of talks between SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).
Chiang and Chen agreed last month during talks in Taichung to place the proposed pact and protection of intellectual property in the next round of meetings scheduled for the first half of this year, possibly in May.
The SEF said in a statement yesterday that tomorrow’s negotiations would be conducted by delegations headed by SEF Secretary-General Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) and ARATS Executive Vice Minister Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中).
ARATS said in a statement published on the Xinhua news agency Web site yesterday that the “expert discussions were expected to focus on the evaluation of the results and proposals of joint research by academic institutions on both sides on this issue and discussing the official name and basic structure of the economic cooperation framework.”
Xinua said ARATS hoped both sides could “keep to the principle of equality and mutual benefit, seek common ground while reserving differences for the promotion of the economic cooperation in an active and steady manner.”
In an interview with the Taipei Times on Thursday, Ma said that signing the ECFA was “just the beginning” and that eventually the two sides would establish “something similar to a free-trade area.”
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 stipulates that the working party of any interim agreement must make appropriate recommendations on the proposed time frame and on measures required to complete the formation of a free-trade area or customs union.
Ma denied during the interview that the government would be coerced into fully opening markets in 10 years, saying any country facing such a situation could refer the problem to the WTO.
Article XXIV of the GATT 1994 states that the “reasonable length of time” for opening markets should exceed 10 years only in exceptional cases. The contracting party believing 10 years would be insufficient shall provide a full explanation to the Council for Trade in Goods of the need for a longer period.
A senior Mainland Affairs Council official who wished to remain anonymous told the Taipei Times yesterday that once an ECFA is signed, 90 percent of the local market would be opened within 10 years.
The Ma administration, however, does not want to provide a time frame for forming a free-trade area, the official said, taking into account that such a description would cause concern among those hit hard by the accords.
Nor did they want to do so in a comprehensive agreement on traded goods, a supplementary accord that would follow after the ECFA is signed, the official said.
At a separate setting yesterday, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) reiterated the government’s promise that it would not open Taiwan’s market further to Chinese agricultural products, nor allow Chinese laborers to work in Taiwan.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS