Taiwan yesterday wrapped up the latest talks with China over a trade in goods agreement, but no significant breakthrough on further tariff reductions was made during the three-day negotiations.
Taiwan and China restarted the trade in goods talks, which took place at the Evergreen Resort Hotel in Yilan County’s Jiaosi Township (礁溪), after the negotiations had been put on hold for the past year.
Taiwan has addressed local manufacturers’ concerns about the potential impact from a free-trade agreement between China and South Korea, as the pact could cause about NT$30 billion (US$1 billion) in damage, Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Jenni Yang (楊珍妮) told reporters.
China and South Korea are likely to sign a bilateral trade pact by the end of this year and Yang said her Chinese counterpart, Chen Xing (陳星), head of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s Department of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, had got the message.
As South Korea is a major rival to Taiwan primarily in the LCD panel, machinery tool and auto part sectors, Taiwanese manufacturers fear that they would lose out to their South Korean competitors if Taiwan and China do not sign a trade in goods agreement, including import tariff reductions, before the China-South Korea free-trade agreement goes into effect, she said.
Dashing that hope, the Taiwanese and Chinese representatives did not discuss expanding the goods that would be subject to tariff cuts or any details about the scope of further tariff reductions.
Yang said they did discuss how to open up the nation’s agricultural sector while safeguarding the interests of Taiwanese farmers and fostering the sustainable development of the local agriculture industry.
“Food safety issues and relaxations on the textile and shoe-making industries were also on the agenda,” Yang said.
Over the past three days, representatives from both sides mainly focused on reviewing and confirming preliminary agreements, mostly the structure of the trade in goods agreement, negotiateded during talks over the past three-and-a-half years since the first meeting took place in February 2011, according to a statement issued by the Bureau of Foreign Trade.
Taiwan and China have agreed to tariff reductions in five categories when opening their markets to each other in the future, Yang said.
No specific date has been set for the next round of talks, Yang said.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
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
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
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
RSS