It is doubtful that China's market offers greater business opportunities for Taiwan's fruit farmers, and those that are keen on holding talks with China on the issue are self-interested and unconcerned with helping farmers overcome barriers to that market, agricultural analysts say.
An announcement made on May 3 by Chen Yunlin (
Premier Frank Hsieh (
But it remains doubtful whether there is a possibility of proceeding with the cross-strait negotiations on fruit exports, with Joseph Wu (
Despite its refusal to meet with TAITRA officials, China keeps repeating its offers while receiving Taiwanese opposition politicians, including legislators from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the People First Party (PFP) and the New Party.
This phenomenon has prompted concern in Taiwanese society, with the pan-green camp considering China's offers to be part of its "united front" strategy, while the pan-blue camp condemns the government's reluctance to accept China's offers.
Agricultural experts said that this issue should be considered as international trade between two countries, and not as political maneuvering on the part of China. A balance between political and economic considerations is the surest way to advance the interest of Taiwanese farmers.
"How competitive is Taiwanese fruit? This question needs to be answered before any expansion into the Chinese market," said Wu Hui-lin (吳惠林), an economist at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research.
It is doubtful that Taiwanese fruit has a competitive advantage because "the land cost is 20 times higher and labor costs are 10 times higher in Taiwan than in Southeast Asian countries," said Lee Joe-san (
Lee echoed Wu's position, saying "the COA has gathered information from China recently, which shows that no more than five types of fruit out of the 15 the at may be granted tariff-free status are competitive in its market."
But some have said that Taiwanese fruit would be competitive in the Chinese market if it accounted for a higher percentage of all fruit exported to China. Taiwanese fruit accounts for only 1.47 percent of China's total imported fruit.
Chao Yung-chuan (
Chao cited his longtime experience in promoting Taiwan's fruits in China and said, "It's hard for us to beat fruit imported from the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and the US, especially in supermarkets where fruit is sold at mid-range or low prices."
"I doubt there are many benefits for our farmers from merely giving tariff-free status. On the one hand, the extent to which high production costs can be offset by tariff-exempt status is quite limited. On the other hand, Taiwanese fruit is not exempted from commodity tax," said Chao, adding that "what we can do to help in China is to create markets that are capable of selling fruit at high prices and then to establish the outlets for these markets."
"For example, our fruits have great potential in capturing China's gift market," he said.
In light of the comparative disadvantage brought about by Taiwan's high production costs, "the unilateral preferential treatment China offered to Taiwan is also a problem," noted Roger Wu (吳榮杰), professor of Agriculture Economics at National Taiwan University.
Since Taiwan and China is both members of the WTO, preferential treatment between two members are only allowed in bilateral agreements and should be negotiated under the umbrella of the WTO, Roger Wu said.
"The unilateral policy violates WTO's regulations and might be called off at any time, leaving its trading partner no place to complain and ask for compensation," he said.
"If the mechanism for bilateral negotiation can't be established, I am afraid that Taiwan will be unable to resist China's unilateral offers of preferential treatment," said the COA's Lee.
"The price of rice imported from China is only one-sixth the price of rice grown in South Korea, posing a threat to the livelihood of Taiwanese farmers," Lee said.
"The situation is the same for growing garlic, scallion and peppers. To avoid the situation, bilateral negotiations between the two governments is required," Lee added.
"Negotiation between two trading partners should not be decided by only one party," said Huang Wei-cher (
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