SEF cleared for resuming talks

The letter also stated that the SEF is willing to resume administrative talks based on the so-called "1992 Consensus" -- an agreement early last decade between negotiators from Taipei and Beijing that there is "one China," but that the two sides have "differing interpretations" over how to define it.

Chiang was also evasive on the subject of his upcoming visit to mainland China, although SEF Secretary-General Kao Koong-liang speculated that morning that cross-strait authorities could ink the accord on the launch of weekend charter flights by mid-June, at the earliest.

During a lunch organized by the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei ahead of his installation, Chiang said he was confident that cross-strait negotiations would start in early June -- possibly after Chen Yunlin, the current director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Chinese State Council, becomes the new ARATS chairman.

After all these medium-range objectives are attained, the SEF would work at enhancing cross-strait economic cooperation and tackle the question of comprehensive economic cooperation agreements or arrangements (CECAs) between Taiwan and China, Chiang explained.

The innovative agreements would pave the way for a cross-strait Common Market envisaged by Vice President Vincent Siew, he added, while getting Taiwan out of the sovereignty dilemma generated by any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed with China or any other ASEAN countries.

The CECAs are designed to reduce or remove tariff barriers in the context of the emergence of an Asian free trade zone, he added.

Chiang first held talks with Chen in Beijing in March 2005, ahead of then KMT Chairman Lien Chan's historic visit in China the following month. He was also the top negotiator in the annual economic forums between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party held ever since.

Many an agreement was reached during the forums, but former President Chen Shui-bian refused to endorse them and led to an isolation and marginalization of Taiwan's economy, he argued.

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