President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) his administration seeks to sign with Beijing is a transitional arrangement for a free-trade agreement (FTA), but stopped short of saying whether an ECFA would eventually lead to a “cross-strait common market.”
“An ECFA is an FTA signed in a piecemeal manner,” he said. “The difference is that an ECFA is an agreement that is smaller in scale but necessary.”
Ma made the remarks at a Central Standing Committee meeting of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in his capacity as party chairman.
Ma played down concerns that the planned accord would allow more Chinese workers to enter the Taiwanese market.
“Any FTAs or similar trade deals between two economic entities never address labor issues because only at much later phases will such matters be addressed. It is possible [to touch on that issue] when an FTA becomes a customs union and later becomes an economic common market, but it is not definite,” he said without elaborating.
Ma said that some Taiwanese products would enjoy lower or zero tariffs once an ECFA is signed.
“If there are two stores, one selling goods with tariffs and the other without any, which one will you go to?” he asked. “Even if the store with tariffs can survive for a while, it cannot hang on forever. That is why we want to sign an ECFA with the mainland … We want to be the store with zero tariffs.”
The accord would also not touch on the agricultural sector, Ma said.
During the second round of negotiations on an ECFA in Taoyuan two weeks ago, Ma said both sides agreed not to include agriculture in the trade deal. China agreed not to ask Taiwan to allow more Chinese agricultural products to enter the local market and that tariffs on the 1,415 items already allowed would not be reduced, he said.
China also promised to “do its best” not to let Taiwanese traditional businesses that are already suffering take an additional hit once an ECFA is signed, he said.
Ma said the agricultural sector did not suffer after Taiwan joined the WTO in January 2002. Instead, the trade volume of agricultural products increased by US$276 billion despite a dropping number of agricultural workers.
“The industry will make the necessary adjustments and gradually tide over a crisis,” he said.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄), who delivered a report at the committee meeting, said he would step down if more Chinese agricultural products were allowed into Taiwan during his tenure.
Chen said an ECFA would only lead to economic prosperity and that Taiwan would be doomed without it.
‘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