Fri, Nov 13, 2009 page12

• Executives largely upbeat on ECFA plan

  PROTECTIONS SOUGHT A poll of Taiwan’s largest enterprises found there were many questions about what an ECFA would cover and concerns about IPR disputes

  • By Joyce Huang / STAFF REPORTER
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  Some 76 percent of 300 executives of the nation’s top 500 largest enterprises back the government’s plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China, although 74 percent of them believe the government hasn’t clarified the pact’s details and another 51 percent said they were unfamiliar with the pact, a new survey by China Credit Information Service Ltd (中華徵信所) found.

  The business information agency said the results were cause for concern about the government’s top-down style of policymaking.

  The opaqueness of the official decision-making could trigger a crisis similar to that spurred by the announcement of the recent revision on US beef imports, China Credit president David Chang (張大為) told a media briefing yesterday.

  The survey found that 54 percent of respondents were worried that Chinese imports would flood the local market and hurt local industries once the proposed ECFA is signed, while another 48 percent said the pact would worsen the nation’s unemployment problem.

  Of the executives surveyed, 72 percent urged the government to make the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in China its top priority when negotiating with the Beijing over the pact as China Credit estimated that China-based Taiwanese businesses were involved in 178 patent disputes in China between 2006 and last year, or roughly a dispute every six days.

  China does not acknowledge IPRs of newly developed agricultural breeds and bacteria species, while patent holders are often awarded no more than 500,000 yuan (US$73,000) in compensation, which is not enough to cover litigation expenses, even if the plaintiffs win in Chinese courts, the agency said.

  The poll found that 62 percent of respondents said Taiwan should be granted super-national treatment, given the country’s contributions to China’s export performance in the past.

  China Credit statistics show Taiwanese businesses had a total of US$15.3 billion in China-bound direct or indirect investments as of last year, up from US$9.3 billion in 2004, and have created an export value of US$160 billion in China after hiring 14 million workers there.

  Ninety percent of executive respondents urged China to offer Taiwan better terms beyond the zero tariffs offered in its closer economic partner agreement (CEPA) with Hong Kong.

  Meanwhile, in a separate setting yesterday, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said there was a “reasonable expectation” that Taipei and Beijing would sign the proposed ECFA during the fifth round of cross-strait high-level talks in the first half of next year.

  Wu said that it was the usual practice for negotiators — the Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait — to discuss the issues in the next round of negotiations following the point in time that the issues have been agreed upon.

  Since both sides have agreed to “exchange opinions” on an ECFA during next month’s meeting in Taichung City, if the ECFA issues are discussed, the proposed pact would become the focal point of the fifth round of meetings, he said.

  ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING
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