ECFA with China ready for signing

Huang and Tang confirmed that China will offer tariff exemptions or reductions on about 500 items of merchandise from Taiwan under the agreement, while only around 200-plus Chinese products will enjoy similar tariff concessions upon entering the Taiwan market.

Other clauses stipulate relief measures for trade disputes, as well as procedures for the agreement to take effect or be terminated.

The agreement also comprises documentation of "place of origin" regulations for "early harvest" list products, as well as on the definition of service providers with regard to services included in the "early harvest" roster.

Taiwanese and Chinese working-level officials began their third formal round of ECFA talks in Beijing in early morning.

According to consensus reached at the meeting, the two sides agreed to begin offering tariff exemptions or reductions and easier market access terms for "early harvest" list products within a certain period after ECFA takes effect.

When asked about possible specific date for the signing of the trade pact, Huang, Taiwan's chief delegate, said it will be decided by Taiwan's SEF and its counterpart in China.

Now that both sides have come to terms on the text of the agreement, the deal should be able to be formally sealed by the end of June as originally expected, some observers said.

SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung and his Chinese counterpart, Chen Yunlin, president of the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait, are scheduled to hold soon a fifth round of the top-level negotiations during which ECFA is expected to be formally sealed.

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