The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday said that the government’s planned signing a of memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China will differ from the cross-strait financial cooperation agreement — one of the three accords signed during the third round of cross-strait negotiations in April that took effect automatically yesterday.
“I promise everyone here that no MOU was signed today [yesterday],” FSC vice chairwoman Lee Jih-chu (李紀珠) told a press conference.
Lee made the comment in response to media and market speculation that the government will soon sign an MOU on cross-strait supervisory cooperation and reach agreement on market access with China.
“There’s no definite timetable as details regarding venues and schedules for discussions about the MOU with China are yet to be finalized by the Mainland Affairs Council,” Lee said.
She reiterated that the MOU should be addressed before discussions begin on the cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA).
These are preliminarily set to begin at the end of the year at the earliest.
FSC chairman Sean Chen (陳冲) expressed the hope that three MOUs on the banking, securities and insurance sectors would be signed at the same time.
But they require consent from China, Lee said.
Once the MOUs are signed, local financial institutions will be granted the status of foreign investors and allowed to enter Chinese markets, Lee said.
Lee also said the commission was striving for complex preferential treatments for local financial institutions, some of which would require post-MOU discussions, with others to be included in the ECFA to be signed later.
For example, China would violate its WTO commitments if it allowed Taiwanese insurance companies a majority stake in their one-to-one joint ventures with Chinese partners.
However, during further post-MOU discussions, Taiwan may be able to persuade China to agree to multiply partners from both parties by revising its internal regulation.
This would provide more flexibility to potential expansion of such ventures, Lee said.
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