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.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS