Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Vice Chairman Huang Wei-feng (黃偉峰) said yesterday that the government must not be left out of negotiations regarding the exports of Taiwanese agricultural produce to China, lest cross-strait exchanges become chaotic.
Huang made the remarks when he attended a seminar on the present cross-strait agricultural exchanges, their outlook and development.
FRUIT
His remarks came against the backdrop of a recent visit by the Taiwan Provincial Farmers' Association to China to discuss fruit exports to China in the wake of the latter's promise to provide zero tariffs to more than a dozen fruits and customs clearance and inspection facilitation.
Huang reaffirmed that the government cannot be left out of these negotiations, adding that the talks should be conducted by bodies accepted by the respective governments and that China should not dictate the body with which it will negotiate.
If China is deliberately leaving out Taiwan's government from the matter and wants only to talk with the private sector, then cross-strait exchanges will be left in disarray and misunderstandings will ensue, he said.
He said that unilateral tariff concessions could violate the principle of the WTO, of which both Taiwan and China are members, and induce other countries to follow suit.
This is why Taiwan insists on talks under the framework of the WTO, and sign a special agreement to avoid pressure from third countries and uphold the rights of local farmers, he said.
TAITRA
He reaffirmed the government's designation of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) as the body in charge of the coordination of exports of Taiwan's agricultural produce to China.
Responding to an official from China's Ministry of Commerce a day earlier who said that Beijing has not said that it will not accept TAITRA as the counterpart for talks, Huang said that he has yet to receive such a message and it needs to be verified.
TAITRA Secretary-General Chao Yung-chuan (
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