More trade talks in the works: Ma

Ma, who doubles as the chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), made the statement in a speech delivered at he second meeting of the 18th KMT Central Review Committee, attended by KMT Honorary Chairman Wu Po-hsiung, a slew of KMT vice chairmen as well as King Pu-tsung, the KMT's secretary general.

This was the second speech Ma gave over the weekend on ECFA, or economic cooperation framework agreement, that Taiwan signed with China in June 2010, possibly the magnum opus of the Ma administration achieved after six decades of cross-strait tension.

Saturday, Ma chastised the mayoral candidates of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for opposing ECFA. In the speech, an emotional Ma declared that “going against ECFA would be going against the Taiwanese people.” Taiwan will have mayoral elections in five major cities in the year-end.

ECFA is in essence a free-trade agreement between Taiwan and China, in the absence of formal diplomatic relations.

The chief element of ECFA is a set of early-harvest lists, specifying goods and services that Taiwan and China can trade at each other's territory with tax-exemption and tax-reduction treatments.

Under the agreement, set to take effect next year, China will open itself to 539 Taiwan goods that can be traded at preferential tax rates, about twice the amount China can trade in Taiwan.

In yesterday's speech, Ma touted the signing of ECFA as his administration's crowning achievement.

“The ultimate goal of our China policy is to reduce cross-strait tension and to keep such tension from becoming a stumbling block to Taiwan's development of friendly ties with other nations in the world,” the president said.

“Our China policy is based on the principles of non-unification, non-independence, and non-violence, under the framework of the Constitution of the Republic of China,” Ma reiterated. “Any dialogues we have with China are based on the 1992 Consensus, namely there is but One China, and each side has its own interpretation of One China. Our interpretation of One China is that it is the Republic of China, and there's no second interpretation.”

As for questions raised by the DPP that why doesn't Taiwan sign economic pacts with other nations first before it does with China, Ma retorted with another question: “If DPP could do it, why didn't it during its eight-year administration?”

“The answer is simple, because it couldn't,” Ma said. “China is our biggest trade partner. We have signed the ECFA with China. Now we're discussing the feasibility of signing an economic cooperation agreement with Singapore, as well as other nations. It does not necessarily have to be called a free trade agreement. It could be on investment or other types of economic activities.”

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