Links across the Taiwan Strait will receive a tremendous boost after both sides enter the WTO, which is expected in November, said China's chief trade negotiator yesterday.
"Within [the WTO] legal framework, it will strengthen cross-strait economic and trade cooperation. It will give a considerably big push to cross-strait trade cooperation," Long Yongtu (
The Taiwan government viewed the statement as positive, with one official saying the remarks echo Taipei's sentiments that WTO entry would bring the two sides closer together.
"It's always been our position that both sides should take advantage of WTO membership to deal with each other based on its rules so that we can gradually normalize our relations," said John Deng (
Long, who serves as China's vice trade minister, also said that authorities in Taiwan would be "gravely mistaken" if they believed that direct transport links between members were not covered within the scope of WTO regulations, reported Taiwan's TVBS television station from Beijing.
Transportation links between countries are a vital service for international trade, Long said.
"For us, `three links' is not a problem. Now, the problem is with the Taiwan side," he said.
But while Deng admitted that direct trade links are covered under the WTO general agreement and would need to be jointly discussed, he stressed that shipping and air transportation services -- the other two of the direct "three links" -- between members is not covered under the trade body's rules.
"Of course direct trade is covered by WTO rules and we always want to talk on this issue. Our position will not be changed so long as they agree to deal with us under the WTO framework," Deng said.
"The important thing is that we must set aside our difficult, long existing political issues and deal with economic issues that can benefit both parties," he added.
It is widely expected that the Economic Development Advisory Conference -- which will meet from Friday to Sunday to finalize stimulus proposals for the government -- will advise establishing the "three links" banned for more than 50 years, and relax restrictions on investment in China.
While Taiwan has opened the so-called "small three links" between its outlying islands and the Chinese coast, broadening the ties has been stalled by China's refusal to discuss the topic unless it is done so under the "one China" principle -- a condition unacceptable to Taiwan.
Chances for restarting dialogue are likely to get a boost after November, when both China and Taiwan say they are scheduled to enter the WTO.
"The conclusion that China will become a full member of WTO at the November Qatar WTO trade ministers' meeting is a foregone conclusion," said Long at a WTO meeting in Geneva on Sept. 10.
At the meeting, Beijing is expected to hand over the last legal documents on accession, including a series of multilateral agreements which must be approved by the 142 WTO member countries.
After that, China will finally become a WTO member 30 days after the documents are ratified by its own parliament, the National People's Congress.
Mexico is the only WTO member not to have reached a bilateral accord on China's entry, with the most recent talks on the issue ending without agreement late last month.
However, officials from both sides have said the lack of an agreement should not hold up China's accession.
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has