'ECFA talks' brightest spot of 4th Chiang-Chen meet: Beijing

Reaching such a deal — a comprehensive accord that would cover market access, economic cooperation in areas such as intellectual property enforcement, and an early harvest program that would lower tariffs on some key commodities — is one of President Ma Ying-jeou's main goals in office.

Wang Yi, China's point man on cross-strait engagements in his capacity as director of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, told the Central News Agency Monday that although the trade pact is not on the agenda of this week's cross-strait talks, negotiators from both sides are expected to exchange views on relevant topics.

“Since experts from both sides have developed sound studies on the problems involved and have also reached positive conclusions through joint research and discussions, we hope the preliminary talks can create a good opportunity to activate ECFA negotiations,” Wang said after seeing off China's delegation to the talks Monday morning.

Chen Yunlin, president of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), will hold formal talks with his Taiwanese counterpart, Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman P.K. Chiang, today on the signing of three agreements that will cover cooperation on fishing crew issues, industrial product standards and agricultural quarantine.

Prior to his departure for Taiwan, Chen said in Beijing last Friday that although the two sides will not sign any documents on the proposed ECFA deal, he is likely to exchange views with Chiang on the opening of expert level ECFA talks next year during their meeting in Taichung on Dec. 22.

The statements by Chen and Wang clearly hinted that the Taichung round of the Chiang-Chen talks will be critical to progress in the ECFA deal.

Authoritative Chinese sources said expert-level talks refer to consultations between officials from both sides to discuss issues under the SEF-ARATS framework in their private capacity as specialists, as China is still reluctant to accept direct official contacts, which it fears would imply its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state.

According to Wang, the ECFA deal will be confined to economic issues and will not touch on any sensitive or contentious political issues.

As the ECFA involves many complicated issues, including market access, tariff concessions and service trade, and Taiwan's ruling and opposition camps have not yet reached a consensus on the deal, it remains to be seen when formal talks on the topic can take off.

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