Four new China pacts

Other government officials explained the benefits for the Taiwanese people from the four new pacts. Huang Yu-tsai, deputy chief of the Council of Agriculture, assured the legislature that Taiwan will not relax its animal and plant health inspection and quarantine regulations to accommodate Chinese products following the signing of the proposed agricultural agreement with China.

Huang said the agreement is meant to bridge the discrepancies in regulations of both sides by requiring the Chinese side to replace its inspection standards of only over 100 criteria with the 657 criteria adopted by Taiwan.

The pact will also oblige China to immediately inform Taiwan of any disease outbreaks there for better consumer protection here.

Hu Hsing-hua, another COA vice chairman, said Taiwan's fishing ship owners have long been allowed to hire foreign workers, including those from China, for ocean-going fishing operations. But the new fishing cooperation pact will empower the government to more effectively supervise the hiring process and ensuring the quality of fishing workers while reducing labor disputes, he explained.

Taxation Agreement

The taxation agreement to be signed during the fourth round of cross-strait talks will protect Taiwanese businessmen operating in China, lower the burden on taxpayers, and increase the government's tax revenues in the long run, Finance Minister Lee Sush-der told lawmakers.

Lee also gave an assurance that information on neither individuals nor companies will be revealed during tax information exchanges between the two sides, in line with international tax treaty protocols. Such information will only be supplied when there is a specific need for tax inspection in cases of major tax evasion, he added.

Lee said the tax agreement closely follows guidelines set forth by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations concerning the standard tax convention documents. Taiwan has signed similar tax treaties with 16 countries.

Among those 16 countries, Lee said, there have been only eight cases of tax information exchange — all of them in relation to major tax evasion or avoidance — in the past five years, with four cases initiated by Taiwan.

He also said it would be impossible for either side to send officials across the Taiwan Strait to conduct tax inspections. The taxation agreement will cover issues such as the taxation rights of each government, the avoidance of double taxation and mutual assistance on taxation matters, Lee added.

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