China says Strait talks not in WTO

The WTO will not provide a new forum for Taiwan and China to discuss cross-strait issues such as the opening of the three direct links (三通), according to a Chinese official quoted in a Hong Kong newspaper.

The staunchly pro-Beijing Wen Hui Po (香港文匯報) newspaper yesterday quoted an unnamed Chinese official as saying that "cross-strait problems such as the three links is an issue between the two sides ... and should only be discussed through already established channels."

The three links which refer to direct communication, transport and trade ties across the Taiwan Strait are currently banned by Taiwan's government.

Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫), however, stressed to the Taipei Times the importance of the WTO to relations between Taipei and Beijing, saying that "economic and trade issue will be the core of cross-strait relations in the near future."

"Certainly ... the multilateral forum and framework [of the WTO] will allow both sides to exchange views and discuss various trade issues," said Lin, who was hopeful that both China and Taiwan would be admitted into the trade body during a WTO meeting set for November.

Lin brushed aside suggestions that failure to resolve the direct links issue could affect Taiwan's accession to the WTO. But trade officials in Geneva have said that, while restrictions on communication and transport links can be maintained under the WTO agreement, a ban on direct free trade violates the basic tenets of the organization.

A refusal by China to discuss the issue either prior to or following membership into the trade body could spell trouble for Taiwan, whose officials have admitted that a full lifting of the ban will require some level of dialogue between both sides.

Whether or not China's apparent opposition to discussing ties even within the WTO framework is a preemptive move to avoid Taiwan sidestepping official bilateral dialogue under the "one China" principle remains unclear.

It is clear however that the tone of the report is in stark contrast to hopes in Taiwan and the international community that entry into the WTO would provide a framework under which both sides could foster closer official ties on the back of an open trade relationship.

But the Beijing official stressed that China was "opposed to internationalizing the cross-strait issue and dragging it into international mechanisms for discussion," according to the report.

Currently there is no mechanism for direct official dialogue between the government of the two sides.

Contacts are instead made through Taipei's semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (海基會) and Beijing's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (海協會).

Regular contact between these two organizations was derailed in 1995 when former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) visited Cornell University. A hoped-for recovery was scuppered in 1999 when Lee described ties between the two sides as "special state-to-state" in nature.

Evidence of Beijing's opposition to participation in international organizations by Taiwan as any entity other than a part of China was presented last week at the APEC trade ministers' forum in Shanghai.

Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) lodged a complaint with China's trade chief Shi Guangsheng (石廣生) over the refusal by Chinese officials to recognize him as a bona fide minister.