“Cross strait economic talks, which probably will resume next year, would be the most ‘difficult’ part of the Taiwan-China negotiations,” said Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung.

Chiang made the remarks during a speech at a seminar sponsored by the Taiwan Competitiveness Forum on the prospects of cross-strait relations.

According to Chiang, the SEF and Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) will rekindle bilateral negotiations by starting with economic issues before political issues. “Starting with less complex issues is our principle for negotiations,” he said. In line with this principle, the SEF and ARATS might resume economic talks on protecting Taiwan business interests and several key financial issues in 2009, he said. The industrial upgrade of Taiwan businesses in China is one of the critical issues to be discussed, he added.

In addition, he said, it is very important for Taiwan to discuss with China the “ASEAN Plus Three” forum, if Taiwan hopes to join the regional trade organization.

“ASEAN Plus Three” is a forum that functions as a coordinator of cooperation between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the three East Asian nations of China, Japan and South Korea.

Now that China, Japan and South Korea are absorbing as much as 65 percent of Taiwan’s total exports, the establishment of “ASEAN Plus Three” will definitely have a huge negative impact on Taiwan if it cannot take part in the trade bloc, Chiang said.

“If Taiwan could first have talks with China over its possible role in ASEAN, other ASEAN member states would not have to worry about pressure from Beijing,” he argued. “However, this would be the most difficult task in cross-strait economic negotiations.”

Taiwan and China would have to discuss a broad range of issues to “normalize” two-way trade and commerce relations, as the two sides did not hold any bilateral talks prior to their admission to the World Trade Organization in 2002, Chiang said.

Apart from the recent economic measures implemented by President Ma Ying-jeou with the aim of boosting cross-strait exchanges, there are other relevant issues on which Taiwan and China need to negotiate, he added.

Concerning the establishment of full direct airlinks across the strait, Chiang said the SEF and the ARATS are set to negotiate on pending core issues such as destinations, flight numbers, route courses and cargo charter flights.

As current shipping links between Taiwan and China are conducted via Japan’s Okinawa, the two sides will also discuss direct shipping services to help enterprises save some 500 million Japanese yen each year and effectively bolster their competitiveness, he said.

The SEF chief contended that Taiwan should use its economic clout and democratic values as a means of maintaining its distinctive image and its own identity on the world stage.

The SEF and ARATS are quasi-official bodies responsible for cross-strait dealings in the absence of official contacts since 1949, when Taiwan and China split amid a Chinese civil war.

The intermediary organizations clinched two historical deals in Beijing in June to set up direct weekend passenger charter flights and to allow more Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan from July.

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