The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party yesterday agreed to facilitate the implementation of the cross-strait service trade agreement as a top priority as they concluded a two-day economic forum in Nanning, China.
The agreement, signed in June during the ninth round of cross-strait talks, is yet to be approved by the Legislative Yuan amid concerns about its potentially negative impact on local service industries.
In announcing the suggestions of the two parties at the closing ceremony of the annual Cross-Strait Economic, Trade and Culture Forum, KMT Vice Chairman John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) said that both sides of the Taiwan Strait will further promote cross-strait trade while continuing to push for the implementation of the service trade agreement.
Other priorities include follow-up negotiations on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), negotiations on dispute settlements, the establishment of a transparent and convenient trade investment environment, and systemization of cross-strait relations.
Former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) yesterday said the two sides will also push ahead with setting up representative offices on each side of the Taiwan Strait, responding to the growing exchanges between China and Taiwan, and said top officials that handled cross-strait relations should visit each other soon.
“It’s not right that officials that handle the cross-strait affairs have not been to the other side of the Taiwan Strait... We should seek breakthroughs and make such meetings happen,” he said at the forum’s closing ceremony.
He described Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi’s (王郁琦) meeting with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) at the APEC summit earlier this month in Indonesia as “a good beginning,” calling on Zhang and Yu Zhengsheng (俞正聲), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, to visit Taiwan soon.
“I think there are plenty of appropriate opportunities for such visits. For instance, when the cross-strait representative offices are set up, [Wang and Zhang] can attend the opening ceremonies on either side of the Taiwan Strait. It would be very meaningful,” he said.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
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ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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