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Officials want more than pandas

Local officials yesterday seemed unimpressed with China's promise that it would send two pandas to Taiwan and make concessions on agricultural trade and tourism, moving instead to revive the standing request to negotiate about the implementation of cross-strait cargo flights.

"We are confused. The government has repeatedly proposed cross-strait cargo flights, but [Beijing] has yet to respond," the Executive Yuan said in a statement issued yesterday.

"We've never retracted this proposal, and we've always set it as our number-one priority. We've been consistent on this," a high-ranking Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) official said.

"If China responds positively to cargo flights, then we can move on to the next step, and then the next, until we are sitting at the negotiating table," the official said.

He added that a demonstration of good will on cargo flights would be beneficial to cooperation on other matters.

"Following [Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman] Lien Chan (連戰) and [Chinese President] Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) meeting, there has been talk of China's good will. But looking at [Beijing's] press conference yesterday, we really don't see any good will," the official said.

Wang Zaixi (王在希), deputy-director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, had said on Tuesday that negotiations were possible, but only under the "one China" principle.

The Cabinet's statement called on Beijing to "prove its sincerity" by substantiating its rhetoric with action and noted that Taiwan was prepared to conduct negotiations on cargo flights in accordance with the precedent set by the talks that brought about the Lunar New Year charter flights.

These talks, which were held in January, had been held by business representatives under the supervision and guidance of government officials.

The Executive Yuan stressed the need for concrete action, and that negotiation would be needed to iron out the details.

The statement was an official response to Beijing's recent decision to bestow upon Taiwan a pair of endangered giant pandas, to lift travel restrictions on Chinese touring Taiwan, and to increase access for Taiwanese fruits and agricultural products to the Chinese market by expanding the number of items that can be exported to China, revoking tariffs on selected fruits and expediting export processes.

"China should propose concrete measures, including the specific fruits to which the zero-tariff policy would apply, how export processes are to be expedited, the sale of fruit in China, and the new fruits that could be exported to China," the Executive Yuan's statement read.

While the media has speculated that papayas, guavas, bananas, grapefruits, wax apples, pineapples and betel nuts would be eligible for tariff cuts, Beijing has yet to announce the details of its new policies.

The Executive Yuan added that matters concerning agricultural trade between Taiwan and China should be dealt with within the framework of the World Trade Organization, of which both countries are members.

"[Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office director] Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) says policies will be relaxed, but we haven't seen anything in writing. These policies will require procedures for visa applications, emergency response, illegal immigration and identification verification, among others. All of these need to be discussed," MAC Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said.
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