The Ministry of Economic Affairs said it has decided to make a virtue of necessity by granting a request by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to make public the English version of the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed by Taiwan and China on June 29.WTO REQUIRED
An anonymous economic official said the ministry must translate the pact into English to notify the WTO of its agreement with China, as required by the WTO of its members.
The English translation will be done by the ministry, which will have thorough discussions with related agencies about the meaning of the pact, and will notify China of its final English version to ensure that there are no discrepancies between the different English versions presented to the WTO, the official said.
Only after the English version has been confirmed by the Chinese authorities will it be posted on the ministry’s Web site.
CHINESE VERSION
However, the official said the English version would only be for the purpose of informing the WTO and that any differences between it and the Chinese-language version would be resolved according to the Chinese version.
DPP lawmakers, who oppose the pact on the grounds that Taiwan’s closer economic ties with China would undermine its political independence, had demanded that the Executive Yuan present an English translation of the pact that could be debated in the legislature.
According to the DPP, the Chinese-language version of the pact “might have hidden snags” that could be exposed only in the English version to be given to the WTO.
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