The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday welcomed China's good will in loosening restrictions on Taiwanese agricultural products, but reiterated that related regulations should be discussed by the governments of both sides instead of private groups, a council official said yesterday.
"The issue should be discussed under the World Trade Organization structure," said Huang Tzu-bin (
"Most importantly, we hope China will put its tax-free offer in writing, rather than merely a verbal statement," he said.
Hung made the remarks after Tang Yi (唐怡), deputy director of the economic bureau of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, told a Beijing press conference that China is prepared to impose zero tariffs on 15 Taiwanese fruits, as well as measures to speed up custom and quarantine procedures on the products.
Tang said he hopes that Taiwan would send a delegation made up of representatives of private groups, such as the Taiwan Provincial Farmers' Association (台灣省農會), to negotiate technical details of the operation, similar to the negotiations for direct cross-strait chartered flights during the Lunar New Year.
Last month Beijing said it would expand the list of fruits allowed to enter China from 12 to 18, and give duty-free status to 15 fruits. The 12 fruits include pineapples, bananas, mangos, papayas, tangerines. The six new items include coconuts, loquats and plums.
China used to levy duties ranging from 13.5 percent to 20 percent on such fruit from Taiwan.
China was the fourth largest importer of Taiwanese agricultural products after Japan, Hong Kong and the US last year.
Taiwan exported US$290 million worth of agricultural products to China last year, or 8.2 percent of total agricultural exports last year, according to council statistics.
"In the short term, the incentives may boost exports to China, but it might eventually hurt local farmers' interest in the long run," Huang said.
In the first quarter of the year, fruit exports to China increased by 63 percent from the same period last year, Huang said, citing council statistics.
He warned that if Beijing doesn't make its zero-tariff offer in an official document, it could suspend the policy any time.
He also said that Beijing might seek to have Taiwan lift its tariff on Chinese agricultural imports, which would severely hurt the interests of Taiwanese farmers if China ended up dumping a huge volume of produce in Taiwan. The government allows imports of 1,475 items, or 62.5 percent of total agricultural imports, from China.
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