Taiwan, China negotiators begin talks in Taipei
ROC Central News Agency
2010/12/21 13:33:44
Taipei, Dec. 21 (CNA) Top negotiators from Taiwan and China began a new round of talks in Taipei Tuesday, with the signing of a medical and health care cooperation agreement topping the meeting's agenda.
In his opening remarks at the meeting, Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) , touted the new agreement on medical cooperation and previous agreements on food safety and agricultural quarantines, as a cross-Taiwan Strait "safety net."
The agreements safeguard the health of the people on both sides, guaranteeing the quality of their interactions on the basis of a solid system, Chiang said.
Chiang's counterpart Chen Yunlin, president of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) , said both sides attached great importance to the agreement, and he hoped it could be sealed at the meeting.
Chiang acknowledged that some of the agreements signed in their five previous meetings had not worked as well as anticipated, citing the inadequate number of cross-Taiwan flights, China's inaction on repatriating suspected economic, and problems finalizing compensation for tarnished food imports.
He said the two sides needed to resolve the problems face-to-face as early as possible, and Chen agreed.
"I would be every supportive" if the two sides could establish some kind of mechanism to check and carry out the signed agreements within a certain period of time, Chen said.
The Chiang-Chen meetings have become part of institutionalized talks between the two quasi-official intermediary bodies in the absence of official ties across the Taiwan Strait.
During their previous five meetings, Chiang and Chen have signed 14 agreements that have paved the way for the opening of direct shipping and air links, tourist exchanges and closer economic ties. (By Charles Kang, Sofia Wu and Elizabeth Hsu) enditem/ls
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