Mainland, Taiwan negotiators to hold 5fth talks
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The fifth round of talks between the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) will be held in Chongqing, southwest China, on June 29.
SEF vice chairman Kao Koong-lian Thursday said a consensus was reached at a preparatory consultation in Taipei between the ARATS and SEF Thursday to fix the details for the talks.
The Taiwan delegation will arrive in Chongqing on June 28, said Kao at a press briefing.
The negotiators also settled the final details of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and agreement on intellectual property protection, which are likely to be reached at the talks.
"The two sides have reached common understanding on most issues concerning the two agreements," said Zheng Lizhong, ARATS vice president, at a press conference after the meeting.
At Thursday's meeting, the negotiators further discussed the details of the "early harvest program," an integral part of the ECFA.
The mainland agreed to reduce duties on 539 commodity items imported from Taiwan, Zheng said. The import value of the products accounted for about 16.1 percent of the mainland's total imports from Taiwan last year.
The products involved 10 sectors, including farm produce, chemicals, machinery, auto parts, textile, electronic products and medical appliances, said Zheng.
Taiwan agreed to reduce duties on 267 items of products imported from the mainland, said Huang Chi-peng, member of the Taiwan's negotiation team, at a press conference later.
The import value of the products accounted for about 10.5 percent of Taiwan's total imports from the mainland last year, he said.
Both sides agreed to cut duties on the products in the early harvest program to zero in three stages over two years.
In addition, the mainland will also open its market in 11 service sectors, including accounting, IT, designing, medical and financial business, while Taiwan will open the market in nine service sectors.
"The ECFA is only the first step for economic cooperation and will not settle all the problems that the mainland and Taiwan businesses face. More work still need to be done after the agreement is signed," Zheng said.
"According to the draft we agreed at the meeting, the two sides will continue discussing agreements on commodity trade, service trade and investment after the ECFA is signed."
The two sides would start discussing commodity trade and service trade pacts six months after the ECFA was signed, said Huang.
The two sides agreed to grant priority to each other on applications of patents, trademarks and new plant species, Zheng said.
The two sides could enlarge their lists of new plant species under intellectual property rights protection after discussion and would set up a system to certify copyright possession and jointly fight piracy, he said.
