The Straits Exchange Foundation and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) yesterday signed a cross-strait service trade agreement in Shanghai during the ninth round of cross-strait talks, opening the service sectors on both sides to further cross-strait exchanges.
Under the pact, which includes four chapters and 24 articles, 64 Taiwanese industries will be opened to Chinese investment, while China will open up 80 industries to Taiwan.
The Taiwanese industries include transportation, tourism and traditional Chinese medicine, while China will open up its finance, retail, electronics, publishing and travel sectors.
Photo: CNA
Under the agreement, Chinese investors will be allowed to open hotels in Taiwan.
Taiwan will also allow Chinese travel agencies to establish a maximum of three branches in the country and provide services to Taiwanese. However, they will not be allowed to accommodate any foreign tourists, including Chinese.
Taiwanese investors will be allowed to set up travel agencies in China, as well as open restaurants or hotels.
Photo: CNA
Chinese companies will be allowed to open beauty parlors or hair salons in Taiwan, but would only be allowed to employ Taiwanese.
While China will open its publishing industry to Taiwanese investment, Taiwan will allow Chinese companies to invest in Taiwanese businesses in the printing service industry, with a maximum of 50 percent stock ownership.
On financial services, Taiwanese companies will be allowed to invest security companies in Shanghai, in Shenzhen and Chinese-controlled Fujian Province.
In signing the pact, foundation Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) and ARATS Chairman Chen Deming (陳德銘) both lauded the agreement for deepening cross-strait exchanges in the service sector.
Lin said 80 percent of the deal opens the two sides’ service sectors to the same or greater degree as the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) that was signed between Hong Kong and China in 2003, with 90 percent of financial services covered in the cross-strait agreement opened, just like in the CEPA.
The cross-strait service trade agreement is a major follow-up to the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and the General Agreement on Trade in Services under the WTO.
“The service trade agreement is a pact that benefits related sectors across the Taiwan Strait and promotes the interests of the public on both sides. It will result in a win-win situation for both sides,” Lin said.
After signing the pact, Taiwan and China cannot revise or cancel the agreement within the next three years.
The two sides will hold an annual meeting to review the implementation of the pact.
The agreement also includes an emergency negotiation mechanism, which gives related industries from each side the right to demand negotiations and seek solutions if the agreement negatively affects their businesses sectors.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS