The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on Tuesday unveiled an English-language translation of the landmark trade pact with China that went into effect on Sept. 12.
However, the ministry said that the English translation is “for reference only.”
“The interpretation of the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement [ECFA] shall be based solely on the original text in the Chinese language,” the ministry said at the beginning of the translation.
The ECFA, signed in late June, paves the way for cross-strait tariff cuts on hundreds of items and services.
The translation can be found at www.moea.gov. tw/Mns/populace/news/News.aspx?kind=1&menu_id=40&news_id=19723.
In other news, Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) said recently that his Chinese counterpart, Association For Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), is unlikely to visit Taiwan before the end of November, when the special municipality elections will be held.
The municipal mayoral elections — considered to be important forerunners to the 2012 presidential election — in Taipei, Sinbei City (the new name for Taipei County after its status upgrade), Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung will take place on Nov. 27.
The SEF and ARATS are semi-official intermediary bodies set up by Taiwan and China respectively to handle cross-strait affairs in the absence of official ties. Since June 2008, Chiang and Chen have held five rounds of talks during which they signed 14 agreements, including the ECFA, on behalf of their governments.
The two chief negotiators are planning to sign an investment protection pact and an agreement on medical and health cooperation in their sixth meeting, which is expected to take place later this year.
In late June, Taiwan and China agreed during negotiations in the Chinese city of Chongqing that Chen would lead a business delegation on a visit to Taiwan this month.
However, while there have been no changes in Taiwan’s plans for Chen to visit, a visit to Taiwan by Chen has been delayed mainly because of a tight schedule this month for exchange visits across the Strait, the SEF said.
Chiang said he recently met with Chen at a ceremony to erect a statue at a Taiwanese-built Matsu temple in Kunshan in China, but added that they did not touch on the subject of Chen’s next visit to Taiwan as details are handled by the agencies’ personnel.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
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