Taiwan and China lowered import tariffs on more than 800 products yesterday under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
China cut duties on 557 items imported from Taiwan including fish and bicycles, an increase from 539 when the ECFA was signed in June, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its Web site on Wednesday. Taiwan will lower tariffs on 267 items such as tea and cement from China as part of the “early harvest” list.
The “early harvest” list includes items that will enjoy preferential tariffs first under the EFCA, a treaty that also includes the opening of industries.
Cross-strait tensions have eased since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May 2008 and dropped the pro-independence stance of his predecessor, making economic relations with China the government’s priority. Taiwan has signed 15 deals with China since 2008, most recently an agreement on medical and healthcare cooperation last month.
“Taiwan’s economic growth is very likely to overshoot in 2011 because of the agreement with China,” Aidan Wang (王誠宏), an economist at Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧), said by telephone on Friday. “More significantly, Chinese tourists and capital will contribute to Taiwan’s domestic demand and help the nation to be less export dependent.”
The nation’s benchmark TAIEX has climbed 21 percent since the ECFA was signed and it closed at a two-and-a-half-year high on Friday.
China also opened markets in six service industries yesterday, including banking, securities, insurance, hospital services, design services and civil aircraft repairs, China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday.
The seventh cross-strait talks this year will continue to discuss an investment protection accord, Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中), vice chairman of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, told reporters in Taipei last month.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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