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Officials caution fruit farmers about the Chinese market

Chanting "Taiwan fruit, excellent!" at a news conference held by the Cabinet yesterday, officials told fruit farmers to recognize that China is only one of many markets for Taiwanese fruit and is not Taiwan's major export market.

The Cabinet held the conference to expound the potential dangers of exporting fruit to China, responding to criticism from the opposition that the government has tried to prohibit farmers from exporting fruit to China.

"As long as we can make profits in China, Taiwan should go ahead and explore it. However, we should not pin all our hopes on the Chinese market," Council of Agriculture (COA) Chairman Lee Chin-lung (李金龍) said.

Based on past experiences in exporting fruit to China and its potential for buying Taiwanese fruit in the future, Lee said that "we should treat China as only one of our markets and it won't be the major market for Taiwan's fruit."

"Our major markets should be countries with temperate climates and our neighboring countries with little agricultural production," he said.

The Chinese government recently declared preferential treatment for Taiwan's fruit exports, such as a zero-tariff policy and acceleration of the custom clearance process.

While the government has designated the Taiwan External Trade and Development Council (TAITRA) to start negotiating these issues with China in the middle of last month, it said that it hasn't had any positive response about negotiations from China.

Lee therefore claimed the Chinese market is unstable, noting that what the government is concerned about is that farmers would suffer big losses should the Chinese government withdraw its verbal and unilateral offers.

"Our farmers should not place too much expectation on such an unstable market and on [Chinese] offers not guaranteed by our government," Lee said.

Meanwhile, Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said that the government hasn't placed any restrictions on the sale of fruit to China and hasn't restricted any group from promoting Taiwan's fruit there.

He warned fruit farmers that the Chinese offers to Taiwan's farmers are "united front" tactics.

"Their offers are closely related to their `Anti-Secession Law'. We should take notice of China's political intentions," he said.
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