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.
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
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
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
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
RSS