The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) is likely to take effect next month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said yesterday.
The legislature on Tuesday last week approved the pact and related legal revisions as well as an accord on the protection of intellectual property rights.
Following the legislature’s approval, it will notify the Executive Yuan, which will then inform the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC). The council will then authorize the SEF to convey the information to its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), and the trade pact will come into force the day after the notification is received.
MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) yesterday declined to speculate on the exact date for the implementation of the ECFA, saying only that each side would inform the other once respective procedures are complete.
The legislature must also inform President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) that the legal revisions pertaining to the trade pact have cleared the lawmaking body so that the president can promulgate them into law.
Ma on Wednesday promulgated amendments to the Trademark Act (商標法), Patent Act (專利法) and Plant Variety and Seed Act (植物品種及種苗法). The Customs Tariff Act (海關進口稅則) is currently making its way to Ma’s desk.
The “early harvest” program, meanwhile, will take effect on Jan. 1 next year. The program refers to a list of goods and services that will be subject to immediate tariff concessions or exemptions, which forms the backbone of the proposed deal.
China has agreed to gradually lower tariffs for 539 categories of imports, with an estimated value of US$13.8 billion a year. Beijing also agreed to open 11 service categories and 18 farming and fishery categories.
Although the 539 categories of traded goods accounted for only 16 percent of China-bound exports, the administration said they were still conducive to overall economic development.
Chinese exporters, on the other hand, will get a reciprocal deal on 267 items, with an estimated value of US$2.9 billion a year.
In related news, an official familiar with the ECFA said yesterday that China did not rule out notifying the WTO of the trade pact it signed with Taiwan.
With Taiwan and China both playing a significant role in world trade, the ECFA has drawn the attention of many WTO members, the official said.
Taipei and Beijing recently discussed whether they should formally notify the WTO of their pact, the official added.
Because the ECFA was signed by the SEF and the ARATS — two semi-official bodies responsible for handling two-way exchanges — Taiwan will send the WTO a letter signed by Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥), explaining that the trade pact was inked with the authorization of the two governments.
Since the ECFA is considered a regional free-trade agreement, WTO rules dictate that the organization be notified.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS