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Foreign officials briefed on results of Taiwan-China trade pact

ROC Central News Agency

2013/07/01 19:55:01

Taipei, July 1 (CNA) Government officials briefed foreign officials posted in Taiwan Monday on the service trade agreement recently signed between Taiwan and China, which will later be reviewed by the Legislature.

The agreement, which was signed June 21 during cross-Taiwan Strait talks in Shanghai, covers sectors spanning financial services, communications, health, travel, culture and entertainment, and transportation.

China will open 80 service sub-sectors and Taiwan will open 64 service sub-sectors, said Lin Chu-chia, deputy head of the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), at the briefing that took place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The agreement will give Taiwanese investors better access to the China market and will help foreign firms with investments in Taiwan to enter the China market, Lin added.

The benefits of the agreement also include promoting participation in regional economic integration, he said, adding that the pact shows Taiwan's efforts in the area of trade liberalization and will contribute to the country's trade liberalization and facilitate its bids to join regional free trade blocs such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

The briefing, hosted by Deputy Foreign Minister Simon Ko, was attended by officials from countries such as the Czech Republic, Denmark, South Korea, Honduras, the Netherlands and the United States.

Asked by an official from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) about the legislative review of the agreement, Lin said the MAC is hopeful that the legislators will examine the agreement as a whole package instead of reviewing it clause by clause.

The AIT is the de facto U.S. embassy in Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties between the two countries

Vice Economics Minister Cho Shih-chao said the Ministry of Economic Affairs has to yet decide on whether to notify the World Trade Organization of the service trade pact as a stand-alone agreement or to notify it later along with other cross-strait trade agreements.

Meanwhile, an official from the Netherlands expressed concern over the results of the agreement, which he said surprised Taiwanese lawmakers and some representatives in the service sector.

In response, Cho explained that the government did make efforts to communicate with lawmakers and some business representatives from service-related industries and to consult with them during negotiations with China on the agreement.

But it would have been nearly impossible to consult with each of the companies in service-related industries, he said, adding that there are over 1.28 million companies in those areas.

Cho described Taiwan's service sector as very strong and said Taiwanese companies in the service industry should have more confidence in themselves.

Some of the foreign officials also asked questions about the development of cross-Taiwan Strait relations.

On the issue of setting up reciprocal representative offices in Taiwan and China, Lin said that the two sides "are under negotiations" and that hopefully, the negotiations will be completed later this year or next.

Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) is planning to set up offices in China, while its Chinese counterpart, the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), is planning to establish similar offices in Taiwan, Lin said.

The SEF and ARATS are quasi-official organizations authorized by their respective governments to handle cross-strait negotiations in the absence of official ties.

In response to a question on whether the Taiwanese public is ready to accept "one country, two systems" regarding Taiwan-China relations, Lin dismissed that concept, saying that it "has no market in Taiwan" and that the majority of the Taiwanese public support the status-quo in cross-strait relations.

Meanwhile, SEF Deputy Secretary-General Ma Shao-chang took the opportunity to defend the service trade pact amid concerns that it will hurt job opportunities for Taiwanese people. The agreement, Ma explained, will not open Taiwan's doors to workers from China, Ma explained.

(By Elaine Hou)