Taiwan trade pact within reach
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The mainland reached a basic consensus with Taiwan on Sunday over the main plank of a landmark trade pact, after experts from both sides finished the third round of negotiations in Beijing.
Both sides are largely in accord on the main content of the agreement, including tax reductions and market access, said Huang Chih-peng, director-general of external trade under Taiwan's ministry of economic affairs, who is also heading the Taiwan delegation.
The first round of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) talks took place in Beijing in January, followed by the second round two months later in Taipei.
Both the mainland and Taiwan have expressed a willingness to sign the ECFA before the end of June.
Regarded as a landmark trade pact, signing the ECFA is a crucial bid to normalize cross-Straits economic relationships, as well as a significant step toward building trust to resolve political and military differences.
Tang Wei, director of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan affairs under the Ministry of Commerce and head of the mainland delegation, said that under the "early harvest list", some 500 Taiwan petrochemical, machinery, auto parts and textile products will be among the first to benefit from tariff reductions under the ECFA.
Meanwhile, 200 mainland products on the "early harvest list" will also benefit from tariff reductions.
Earlier reports from Taiwan said the tariff reductions on petrochemical products could be around 60 percent and 80 percent for textiles. Together all the items on the initial list put forward for reductions, which has been named the "early harvest list", account for some 15 percent of Taiwan's exports to the mainland.
Huang did not confirm when the ECFA would officially be signed, but said the ECFA will take effect after both sides "finish the necessary procedures".
Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou and his delegation have been pushing for the ECFA to be signed to boost Taiwan's economy as well as to improve cross-Straits ties.
However, critics of the pact, including the pro-independent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), claimed a flood of cheap mainland imports could destroy Taiwan's economy and view the deal as paving the way for a political takeover by the mainland.
Tang and several senior mainland officials have repeatedly stressed that the ECFA is "purely an economic issue", in which the mainland will benefit substantially less than Taiwan.
Trade between the mainland and Taiwan reached $44.26 billion in the first four months of 2010, a 67.9 percent rise on the preceding year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
