The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) will soon release a position paper on the plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China to seek public support for the proposal, ministry sources said.
The paper will be presented in a question-and-answer format to expound on the necessity to strike such a deal with China and to clarify misunderstandings about the proposed pact’s content and effects, the sources said.
The paper will stresses that without such an agreement, the benefits of any tariff exemption or concession pacts that may be signed between the two sides would be offset by requests from other WTO members for the same treatment, the sources said.
Noting that the proposed cross-strait ECFA is a precursor to a regional trade agreement (RTA) or a free-trade agreement (FTA), the sources said the WTO has been encouraging its members to develop closer economic relations by signing such pacts to boost bilateral or multilateral trade.
WTO members who have signed RTAs or FTAs are allowed to mutually enjoy preferential trading terms or tariff treatment under those agreements without being subject to the restrictions of the most-favored-nation principle, the sources said.
If Taiwan signs a ECFA with China, then tariff concessions stipulated in the pact would only be applicable to the two signatories and no other WTO members would be able to ask for the same treatment, the sources said.
The major differences between an ECFA and an RTA/FTA mainly lie in the fact that an RTA/FTA tends to cover more topics and therefore takes more time to finalize negotiations, the sources said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
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