Taipei and Beijing will hold the third round of negotiations on a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) in Beijing on Sunday, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said yesterday.
In a statement, the SEF said Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Huang Chih-peng (黃志鵬) would lead the delegation. Members will include officials from the Industrial Development Bureau, the Investment Commission, the International Trade Commission, the Financial Supervisory Commission, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the SEF.
Negotiations will focus on the text of the proposed accord and “early harvest” program, it said, adding that both sides would also exchange opinions on the arrangement of the subsequent negotiations.
The “early harvest” list refers to a list of goods and services that will be subject to immediate tariff concessions or exemptions, which are expected to form the backbone of the proposed deal.
Huang was in Beijing from Tuesday until yesterday, where he was reportedly making last-ditch efforts to seek a breakthrough in deadlocked talks on the inclusion of the machine tools, polypropylene and PVC industries in the “early harvest” list for tariff exemptions or reductions. Among the Chinese officials sources said he met with was Department of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Director Tang Wei (唐煒).
MAC officials had previously said the two sides might need to hold one more round of ECFA negotiations before SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) can meet his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), to sign the deal.
MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) yesterday said a fourth round of negotiations would most likely be needed because Sunday’s negotiations would focus more on the text of the planned pact than on the “early harvest” list.
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) confirmed yesterday that the two sides would not exchange “early harvest” lists during talks on Sunday. However, he said it remained the common goal of both sides to sign the trade deal by the end of this month.
Liu said the delegation would leave tomorrow and return on Monday. Since both sides would also touch on trade in services, Liu said members from the Government Information Office, Department of Health and Ministry of Transportation and Communications would also attend.
The proposed pact would cover the following seven areas: traded goods, investment, trade in services, trade remedies, dispute settlement, economic cooperation and certification of place of origin.
Liu said that because both sides have made substantial progress in negotiations on the certification of place of origin, there would not be many negotiators from the Ministry of Finance at Sunday’s negotiations. Certification of place of origin would be attached to an ECFA in an appendix, Liu said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said the administration’s plan to sign an ECFA this month remained unchanged, but added that he could not guarantee other countries would want to sign free-trade agreements with Taiwan after an ECFA is signed. However, he said the odds of signing free-trade agreements with other countries would increase once an ECFA is signed.
Ma made the remarks while meeting members of the Industrial Park Manufacturer Federation of the Republic of China at the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
RSS