ECFA follow-up negotiations slated for Aug. 1-7

Chen Xing, director of the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Department under China's Ministry of Commerce, is scheduled to lead the Chinese delegation that will meet the Taiwanese negotiators, to be led by Cho Shih-chao, director-general of the MOEA's Bureau of Foreign Trade.

They are expected to continue working group talks on trade in goods and services.

The week-long talks will be the third round of negotiations on the issue since the conclusion of the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) in June 2010.

During the negotiations, 5,824 items will be reviewed in the goods talks and over 100 items are to be reviewed in the services sector talks for tariff reductions, according to the MOEA.

Taiwan will make flat panels, finished automobiles and certain plastics, as well as machine tool categories, the top priorities for tariff reductions in the talks.

Taiwan has been resistant to further opening its markets to Chinese agricultural products since the signing of the ECFA, which allows certain farm produce from China to enter Taiwan.

Nevertheless, China's Commerce Minister Chen Deming has openly said recently that China hopes to sell agricultural products to Taiwan that are not produced in Taiwan or that are in short supply here.

Meanwhile, negotiators from the two sides are putting the final touches to an investment protection agreement that has been discussed since late last year.

Both sides look forward to clinching the much-talked about agreement during the next, or seventh round of top-level talks between Taiwan and China, slated to take place in China's northern city of Tianjin in August.

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