The failure to ink an agreement on avoiding double taxation during cross-strait negotiations will not affect the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), an official from China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) said yesterday.
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his ARATS counterpart Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) decided at a meeting yesterday morning that the next round of cross-strait negotiations will address the signing of an ECFA and the protection of intellectual property rights.
ARATS Deputy Chairman Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中) yesterday played down the effect of the breakdown of the negotiations on double taxation.
Zheng dismissed speculation in the media that opposition from Taiwanese businessmen worried about the leaking of their tax information and disagreements on sovereignty and authority over taxation were the factors behind the negotiation breakdown.
“[Signing only three agreements] shows that the two sides are being practical and open about the problems we encountered during the meeting” Zheng told a press conference at the Windsor Hotel after the meeting.
“There were no political factors [behind the negotiation breakdown] and it will not affect the signing of an ECFA,” he said.
Zheng said it was “normal” for negotiations to break down on complicated issues, adding that placing an issue on the agenda did not guarantee the signing of an agreement.
The two sides will continue negotiating the issue and seek to sign an agreement as soon as possible, he said.
Zheng declined to give a timetable on the signing of an ECFA, but said experts from the two sides would begin negotiations as soon as possible, adding that China would take the capability of Taiwan’s market and Taiwanese acceptance into consideration during the negotiation process.
“The signing of the ECFA is a simple economic issue and we will try our best to maximize the interests and minimize the price both sides have to pay,” he said.
The fifth round of cross-strait negotiations will be held next year in China.
In response to media inquiry about President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) suggestion that the SEF find a way to include the opinions of opposition parties in the cross-strait negotiations, Zheng said ARATS would welcome any Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members to have a dialogue with China “as long as they do not engage in Taiwan independence activities.”
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