Taipei and Beijing will hold a preparatory meeting in Taipei tomorrow to iron out final differences on an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) before top negotiators from both sides meet next week to sign the deal.
In a statement, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中), executive deputy director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, and his delegation would arrive in Taipei today and hold talks with the foundation’s vice chairman, Kao Koong-liang (高孔廉), tomorrow. It did not say where the meeting would be held.
The statement said Kao and Zheng would conduct a final round of confirmations on the text of the accord and negotiations on the “early harvest” lists.
The early harvest lists refer to goods and services that will be subject to immediate tariff concessions or exemptions, which are expected to form the backbone of the proposed deal.
The two sides will also finalize an agreement on intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and the time and place of the meeting between Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunling (陳雲林).
While unconfirmed reports say the Chiang-Chen meeting could take place in Chongqing, China, next Wednesday, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) declined to confirm the location, but said it would be announced tomorrow.
However, he said the talks would not last as long as previous rounds because there would be no sightseeing involved.
As soon as the preparatory meeting concludes, Liu said the negotiation team would brief Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
The foundation would also make Taiwan’s early harvest list public tomorrow, Liu said, but the content of the agreement would not be fully disclosed until after it is signed. Liu said most of the text of the ECFA was already public and that it would not set a timeframe for opening the Taiwanese market.
The legislature intends to call a provisional session to review the pact next month. Liu yesterday said both an ECFA and agreement on IPR protection would need legislative examination rather than mere ratification because they concern legal revisions of current laws.
Wu Mei-hung (吳美紅), director of the council’s Legal Affairs Department, said that if any proposed amendment pertaining to the accord failed to pass the legislature, that particular article in the IPR agreement would not be implemented.
She said the IPR accord would cover the cultural industry and plant varieties. The purpose is to establish a communication platform for both sides to jointly combat IPR violations.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
RSS