Taiwan expects to sign ECFA with China in June: economics minister
China News Agency 2010/03/30
Taiwan expects to sign ECFA with China in June: economics minister
By Yang Su-min, Cheng Yun-hsuan and Elizabeth Hsu
Taipei, March 30 (CNA) — With the approach of the second round of cross-Taiwan Strait talks on a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), Taiwan is expecting the pact to be signed in June, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang said Tuesday.
The talks will be held March 31-April 1 at the Ta Shee Resort in Taoyuan County, some 40 km south of Taipei.
Shih said the negotiations will focus on items in the machinery, upstream and midstream textile, petroleum and transport manufacturing sectors, which are among the 500 items Taiwan has put on its "early harvest" list for immediate tariff easing or lifting upon the signing of the cross-strait trade pact.
Shih explained that Taiwan is eager to talk about items that are either on the zero-tariff list of the free trade agreement between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), or that are major exports of Taiwan.
Taiwan’s exports of those items to China are facing strong competition from ASEAN exporters and it is much more urgent to have them secured on the ECFA’s early-harvest list than other items, Shih said.
He noted that the flat panel fabrication sector, which at one point was said to be on the agenda of the upcoming ECFA talks, will not be on the priority list for the negotiations.
Members of the Taiwanese delegation attending the Taoyuan talks will include officials of the Mainland Affairs Council — Taiwan’s highest authority in charge of China affairs — as well as officials of the Bureau of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), the MOEA’s Industrial Development Bureau, the quasi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and other relevant government agencies.
The Chinese delegation will be composed of board members of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and officials of China’s trade and economic departments, who will attend the meeting as ARATS advisers.
Meanwhile, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Vice Chairwoman Lee Jih-chu confirmed that banking and other financial services will not be on the agenda of the upcoming talks, so no FSC officials will attend the meeting.
The MAC and the MOEA have decided to exclude the sector from the upcoming talks, which they think should focus on issues that local people care about the most, such as farmers’ rights, Lee said.
Nevertheless, the financial service sector will be on the early harvest list, she added.
The first round of ECFA talks took place in Beijing Jan. 26.
