The government would be more likely to terminate portions of an agreement with Beijing than request renegotiation, a high-ranking Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) official said yesterday, adding that the government is committed to “doing all the homework” before a deal is sealed.
MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said he was baffled by Indonesia’s decision to ask China for renegotiation on a trade deal signed between China and ASEAN countries.
He was referring to an announcement by the Indonesian government on Feb. 9 that it had sent a letter to the Chinese government asking for renegotiation on the ASEAN-China Free-Trade Area (ACFTA) agreement, which went into effect on Jan. 1 this year. The Indonesian industry ministry said the request was because of pressure from its steel industry, which experienced negative growth of 6.7 percent last year.
“I don’t know what happened to their government,” Liu said. “It is their internal problem and [such a request] should not be a norm. It indicated that they didn’t do a good job during the process.”
Once the trade pact is signed, Liu said, each signing party should face pressure from businesses rather than turn around and say they now had a different opinion.
When asked whether he meant the government would not ask for renegotiation with Beijing once an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) is signed, Liu said he did not want to draw such a conclusion because the proposed pact was different from the trade deal between Indonesia and China.
Liu added that since the ECFA would be a framework agreement, both sides would continue to negotiate until all the supplementary agreements had been signed.
“We don’t call it renegotiation,” he said. “There is no such thing as renegotiation. If we decide we don’t want certain items in the trade deal any more, we simply terminate them.”
Liu said almost all free-trade agreements have such a measure in place, which he described as “normal” and “necessary.”
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) has previously said the government was mulling introducing a mechanism in the ECFA that would allow either Taipei or Beijing to suspend the agreement.
Apart from the “early harvest” items, Liu said they hoped the ECFA would address the rampant problem of counterfeiting by Chinese companies.
Recently, a Chinese firm selling liquid-crystal-display (LCD) television sets, Qimei, was found to bear a similar name to Taiwanese LCD panel maker, Chi Mei.
Liu said the Taiwanese firm must first find out whether its Chinese counterpart was officially registered in China before it takes the matter to a Chinese court.
Liu said he was uncertain whether it was the first violation of brand name in the electronics products industry, but similar occurrences were rampant in the agricultural sector.
“It is important to prevent it from happening again,” he said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS