The second round of official negotiations on a proposed cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) will probably take place in Taipei early next month, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said yesterday.
Taiwan’s and China’s plans to strike the deal in May remain unchanged, Shih said during a Lunar New Year lunch with reporters.
The signing of the ECFA, which is expected to have a crucial impact on Taiwan’s economy, is one of the major policy goals for the ministry this year, Shih said.
Ministry officials said the issues that are expected to be dealt with in the second round of cross-strait ECFA talks would include an “early harvest” list from each side, naming economic sectors that would be the first to benefit from the agreement.
Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Huang Chih-peng (黃志鵬) and Tang Wei (唐煒), director of the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Department under China’s Ministry of Commerce, who chaired the first round of talks on Jan. 26 in Beijing, will also chair the second round.
Shih said the government was fully aware of the Democratic Progress Party’s stance on the issue.
He said his ministry would increase its communication with the party until the agreement is signed.
The minister also said that trying to persuade opposition parties and the public that the ECFA is crucial to Taiwan was a tremendously difficult task.
Shih said that signing an ECFA would not necessarily cause local industries to relocate abroad, although not signing it would definitely result in a rapid exodus of local industries, an opinion that is not shared by critics of the ECFA.
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