The government will only permit the exchange of yuan in Taiwan in a limited number of tourist spots unless negotiations with China for a broader agreement finish within six months, an official said yesterday.
"The possibility has been deliberated in coordination with the policy of opening Taiwan to Chinese tourists," Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chief Secretary Jan Jyh-Horng (詹志宏) told the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus.
Jan attended a meeting in the legislature, where KMT legislators demanded the government step up the pace of cross-strait financial exchanges.
Chinese tourists are allowed to bring yuan into Taiwan, but are not allowed to use the currency to make payments, KMT Legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said, adding that he wondered whether this policy encouraged black-marketeering.
"Actually, the yuan is accepted in many shops in tourist spots, even though such exchanges are illegal," Yang said.
The government allows yuan to be exchanged for New Taiwan dollars on the outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu, but not in Taiwan proper.
The council said that the establishment of a mechanism for currency settlement was necessary before the yuan could be treated as a normal foreign currency.
"In accordance with the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例), the governments of both sides must make an agreement on currency settlement," Jan said.
Jan said that the first priority for the council was to conduct negotiations on this issue with China as soon as possible.
"If the negotiations are not done before China allows its people to travel to Taiwan, the government will partially allow currency exchange in some tourist spots," he said, adding that the council had been working on the details.
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