The latest visit by Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) was more political than economic, an expert on cross-strait affairs told a forum yesterday.
Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), chief executive of Taiwan Brain Trust, a think tank, said although it was not Chen’s first trip to Taiwan, it was the first time he traveled to central and southern Taiwan, which are considered more sympathetic to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Chen’s visit, which started the day after the first meeting of the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Committee, was a crucial step in Beijing’s attempt to oppose Taiwan independence and insist on the so-called “1992 consensus,” Lo said.
Following the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between Taipei and Beijing in June, Lo said China had pushed hard for cultural and educational exchanges and cooperation with Taiwan.
By adopting a softer approach, Beijing hoped to change the attitude Taiwanese hold toward it, Lo said.
“Beijing’s plan is to deepen cross-strait relations so people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait would be more amenable to ‘peaceful development,’” he said.
Lo said Chen’s visit last week clearly had political ramifications, or Chen would not have announced during his stay that he had crossed the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) — which is generally regarded as the boundary demarcating Taiwan’s northern and southern regions.
Chen’s visit was also a political maneuver designed to create divisions in Taiwan — between the central and local governments and within the pan-blue camp and inside the pan-green alliance, he said.
If Chen genuinely wanted to better understand the south, Lo said, he should have listened to what his opponents had to say.
Meanwhile, Honigmann Hong (洪財隆), an adjunct assistant professor of economics at National Tsing Hua University’s Center for Contemporary China, called on the administration to notify the WTO about the ECFA, something government officials had promised they would do.
Citing the WTO’s Transparency Mechanism for Regional Trade Agreements, Hong said members participating in negotiations aimed at the conclusion of a regional-trade agreement (RTA) must inform the WTO within a certain period of time or do so when the signed RTA is publicly available.
As a rule, notification of an RTA should occur no later than immediately following the ratification of the pact or any party’s decision on application of the relevant parts of an agreement, and before the application of preferential treatment between the parties, Hong said.
While the ECFA came into force in September, its “early harvest” program, which forms the backbone of the trade pact, commenced on Jan. 1.
The Bureau of Foreign Trade said last month that both sides had translated the document into English, but had not decided when to notify the global trade body on the content of the pact.
Bureau of Foreign Trade Deputy Director Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) said the WTO does not set a time limit for submission.
Describing the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Committee as “an amoeba,” Taipei Society director Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) raised questions about the purpose of the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Committee. He said that while the ECFA defines the committee as a “institution-like arrangement,” the administration said it was merely an ad hoc negotiation platform.
“I want to know whether the results of its negotiation are legally binding and should be supervised by the legislature,” he said.
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