Taiwan and China resumed talks on a trade in goods agreement yesterday after a nearly 11-month hiatus. However, the government has kept the talks so secret that almost all that is known is that the three-day meeting is being held somewhere in Taiwan.
However, late last night Storm Media Group (風傳媒) reported the meeting is being held at the Evergreen Resort Hotel in Yilan County’s Jiaosi Township (礁溪).
The delay in ratifying the cross-strait service trade agreement signed in June last year — because of widespread public protests and opposition parties’ delay tactics in the legislature — meant that no negotiations had been held since the last round of bilateral trade talks wrapped up in October, hampering the government’s efforts to make progress in inking a trade in goods agreement with Beijing.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan’s negotiating team for the ninth round of talks on a goods trade pact is being led by Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Jenni Yang (楊珍妮), while Beijing’s team is led by Chen Xing (陳星), head of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s Department of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs.
This round of talks are expected to first focus on technical issues, such as “which industrial items would be subject to tariff reductions, how tariff cuts would be introduced and preconditions for such cuts,” Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh (杜紫軍) said yesterday ahead of the start of the talks.
“It will take a very long time for the trade in goods agreement talks to hammer out some concrete results,” cable TV network UBN quoted Duh as saying after presiding over a handover ceremony for the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) in Taipei, where Cabinet adviser Francis Liang (梁國新) replaced Wang Chih-kang (王志剛) as TAITRA chairman.
Photo: CNA
“We hope [the two sides can] reach an initial consensus on certain technical issues in this meeting. We will move toward the goods trade agreement only after the Legislative Yuan resolves issues related to legislation on a mechanism for monitoring cross-strait agreements and the ratification of the service trade pact,” Duh said.
Local media reported that Taiwan plans to seek tariff reductions in the flat-panel display, machine tool, petrochemical and automobile sectors.
However, Duh said that tariff reductions to be discussed would also include between 6,000 and 7,000 items about which Taiwan’s small and medium-sized businesses care most.
The minister said the Taiwanese team would work hard to keep the opening of the local agricultural market to China at current levels. He did not elaborate.
It is not clear whether the ministry will make the content of this latest round of talks public, and if it did, when it might do so.
The secrecy surrounding the talks led representatives of several groups to protest outside the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) in Taipei. They said the proposed trade in goods pact would sacrifice the interests of Taiwanese and benefit only a few large corporations.
More than 30 protesters — including Democratic Front Against the Cross-Strait Trade in Services Agreement spokesperson Lai Chung-chiang and Sunflower movement leader Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) — held up placards and chanted slogans, including “stop the trade in goods talks” and “MOEA, don’t play hide-and-seek.”
Industrial Development Bureau Deputy Director-General Lien Ching-chang (連錦漳) said the Taiwanese negotiators would do their best to negotiate the best deals for the country’s industries, and will “completely” protect and guard its sensitive industries.
Additional reporting by CNA
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