Sat, Dec 20, 2008 page12

• Academics call for market safeguards

  CAUTION THROWN TO THE WIND The academics said orange farmers were unlikely to benefit from opening to China, while luggage manufacturers experienced harm

  • By Joyce Huang / STAFF REPORTER
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  Local academics yesterday urged President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government to implement special safeguards to minimize negative impacts from Chinese imports as the local financial market is opened to Chinese banks.

  The hasty signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Taiwan and China to initiate financial exchanges before hammering out safeguard measures will put the local market and domestic companies in a vulnerable position, Taiwan Thinktank chairman Chen Po-chih (陳博志) told a media briefing that was organized by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

  For example, once they set up shop here, Chinese banks will have full access to the financial details of individuals at the Joint Credit Information Center, he said.

  Banks in China may abuse their privilege by obtaining local financial details to assist Chinese authorities as they levy taxes on China-based Taiwanese companies or by infringing personal financial privacy, which may further endanger the nation’s security, he said.

  Chen urged the government to implement special restrictions on Chinese banks before signing the MOU.

  He also urged the government not to sacrifice the nation’s sovereignty for short-term gains by turning Taiwan into another Hong Kong to accelerate the pace with which domestic banks may branch into China.

  “Ma’s government has exaggerated the benefits of opening to cross-strait trade while turning a blind eye to possible [negative] impacts,” Chen said.

  Domestic orange farmers have no chance of making profits in Chinese markets, where the top-tier, high-priced Taiwanese fruit will have a hard time competing with Chinese peers, Wu Ming-ming (吳明敏), an emeritus professor at National Chung Hsing University, told the same briefing yesterday.

  Early this week, orange farmers made NT$13 per kilogram from top-tier orange exports to China, which are likely to retail at NT$40 in Shanghai supermarkets next week — twice the price of Chinese oranges of a similar quality. The same oranges could have earned NT$14 per kilogram net in the local market, Wu said.

  “If the price of [orange] exports to China remains low, orange farmers told me that they may no longer be interested in tapping the Chinese markets,” Wu said, expressing a pessimistic view that Taiwanese agricultural products would have a chance of prospering because of access to the China market.

  DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that some traditional industries, such as leather luggage businesses, were also suffering severely from the government’s opening policies toward China.

  Chinese imports, made to look as though they were Taiwan-made products, have harmed the local manufacturers of the genuine products that offer better quality albeit at a higher price, Tsai said.

  She demanded that the Ma government not loosen inspections on dumping and identification of Chinese products.

  The government’s cross-strait trade policies have encouraged local businesses “to pursue an uncertain market [in China] while leaving the domestic market wide open without any protection,” Tsai said.
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