Cross-strait talks on flight increases to reopen soon: official
ROC Central News Agency
2010/07/25 20:34:07
Taipei, July 25 (CNA) Negotiations with China on the dispute over an increase in the number of direct cross-strait flights will be held before the end of this month or in the first week of August at the latest, Taiwan's deputy transportation minister said Sunday.
"Both sides are willing to mend the rift and may re-negotiate the issue before the end of July at the earliest, or hold the talks within two weeks, " said Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih.
According to Yeh, the Taipei-based Taiwan Strait Tourism Association (TSTA) and China's Cross-Strait Tourism Association (CSTA) will be assigned to negotiate the issue in order to resolve the dispute.
Both the TSTA and CSTA are quasi-official organizations assigned by the transport ministry on their respective sides and to handle tourism promotion matters. The TSTA opened a representative office in Beijing in early May and the CSTA's Taipei office also became operational almost at the same time.
The current dispute stemmed from the two sides' conflicting perceptions of an agreement reached in May for carriers from each side to operate an additional 50 flights per week to meet the growing market demand.
China insisted that 20 of the 50 additional flights should travel to Fuzhou and Xiamen in Fujian Province. According to Taiwan's understanding, its carriers were to be allowed to freely choose new flight destinations since they had already been running a combined weekly total of 20 flights to the two Chinese cities.
After Taiwanese and Chinese carriers each launched 14 direct flights between Taipei Songshan Airport and Shanghai Hongqia Airport in June, China rejected most of the other new flight routes that Taiwan carriers proposed to begin in late July.
In retaliation, Taiwan's CAA decided July 20 to shorten the period of the licenses it had issued for 31 of the 36 new flights by Chinese carriers. The CAA changed the licenses expiry date to from Oct. 30 to Aug. 1 for 31 of the flights.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chih-kuo admitted last week that the confusion over the number of flights had occurred because Taiwan's negotiators, in the May round of talks, had not clarified and documented the exact flight quota for Fuzhou and Xiamen.
At first, China was unwilling to reopen talks on the issue until October when both sides were scheduled to review the cross-strait aviation market. But Yeh said Sunday that China has shown goodwill in wanting to resolve the dispute sooner.
Meanwhile, Yeh denied a newspaper report the same day that the problem stemmed from Taiwan abrupt switch of chief negotiators in the May talks.
The Liberty Times said in its Sunday edition that the country's top leadership was to be blamed for the flap because it had ordered the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) to replace Taiwan's chief negotiator in that round of talks, on the basis of pressure from China.
In the May talks, Taiwan was represented by Wang Teh-ho, a deputy director-general of the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) who is not normally responsible for aviation affairs and has little experience negotiating with China.
The daily quoted opposition Legislator Tsai Hung-liang as saying that Taiwan is usually represented by another CAA deputy director, Lin Hsin-teh, in talks on cross-strait aviation rights.
But because Lin is known to be a tough negotiator, the Chinese team did not want hold face-to-face talks with him and asked that he be replaced, Tsai said.
Tsai was quoted as saying that President Ma was primarily to be blamed for the dispute and that MOTC Minister Mao should step down to assume political responsibility for the flap.
Yeh, however, said the media report had exaggerated the situation.
"No single person could have handled the cross-strait aviation talks, " he argued, adding that the replacement of the chief negotiator was not the primary cause of the current dispute.
According to Yeh, talks on cross-strait aviation rights are usually divided into two stages. In the first stage, negotiators from both sides meet in person to work out key principles, while in the second phase the discussions are held by mail or phone, focusing on flight destinations and time schedules.
In the future, Yeh said, Taiwan will push for a more conventional negotiation process in the second phase to avoid any other disputes. (By Chen Shun-hsieh and Sofia Wu) enditem /pc
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