MAC unveils major goals for Chiang-Chen meeting

Lai made the remarks in an interview with the United Evening News (UEN), published yesterday, in an effort to ease doubts about the negative impact of the Chiang-Chen talks slated to open on Dec. 22 in the central city of Taichung.

Four new trade and tax agreements between Taiwan and China will be officially inked on Dec. 22 by Chiang and Chen on behalf of both sides of the Taiwan Straits. ARATS's Chen will lead a Chinese delegation for negotiations and tours in central Taiwan Dec. 21-15.

Details of the four pacts on the cross-strait pacts regarding fishing crew cooperation, agricultural quarantine inspection, industrial product standards, inspection and certification, and the avoidance of double taxation were concluded were finalized by SEF Vice Chairman Kao Koong-lian and Chinese officials in Fuzhou of Fujian Province in southeastern China last week.

Lai told the UEN that the pacts on agricultural quarantine and inspection, and on industrial product standards, inspection and certification to be signed next Tuesday, and the food safety and sanitation agreement inked last year will serve to help a safety network for local consumers. With the network, consumers will be spared worries about buying poor-quality food products made in the mainland, she noted.

Lai also stressed that Taiwan can play a dominant role in setting up industrial product standards, especially for LED and optoelectronics products for cross-strait markets, to facilitate exports of Taiwan-made products to the huge mainland Chinese market, and the industrial product standards can be gradually developed into international standards. This is another strategic goal the government wants to achieve through the pact on industrial product standards and certification to be inked on Dec. 22, Lai added.

Also yesterday, Chairman Chen Wu-hsiung of the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture (COA) said that in the upcoming Chiang-Chen talks in Taichung, the COA will fully take care of the interests for local farmers and fishermen when discussing the pacts on fishing crew cooperation and agricultural quarantine inspection.

Chen said that in the fishing crew cooperation, both sides will systemize the employment of mainland Chinese crew, to safeguard Taiwanese owners of fishing ships. The cooperation, Chen stressed, is not meant to liberalize entry of mainland Chinese workers, but to settle disputes between Taiwanese employers and mainland Chinese crew seen over the past 15 years.

The COA chief said that both sides will also jointly map out standards governing the pesticide residuals seen in agricultural products, in a bid to shorten the time needed for quarantine inspection on such products before they're shipped to each other's side.

Chen also stressed that the government here will categorically not allow imports of 830 agricultural products from mainland China, so as to safeguard the interest of local farmers of similar products.

Over the past years, the government has permitted imports of 1,421 mainland Chinese agricultural items, but all of which have been not produced or grown in Taiwan.

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