Committee to Be Set Up for Settling Cross-Strait Trade Disputes

Taipei, June 29, 2010 (CENS)--Taiwan and China have agreed to set up a "cross-Taiwan Strait economic cooperation committee" to settle their trade disputes, following the signing of cross-Taiwan Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), scheduled today (June 29).

The committee, however, will be a virtual communications platform, under whose umbrella delegates from related units of both sides will form various panels to iron out their differences concerning trade disputes for merchandises or services on the early-harvest list, or priority items for marketing opening, before a permanent trade dispute-settlement mechanism is put in place.

The committee will also arrange follow-up talks on a number of issues concerning cross-Strait economic exchanges, including agreements on merchandise trade and service trade, investment protection agreement, and trade dispute-settlement mechanism. The committee will function via Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS).

Lai Shin-yuan, minister of the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), pointed out that the prospective committee is different from the steering committee for the Close Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between China and Hong Kong, which is furnished with administrative and supervisory function.

Lai lauded the contents of ECFA, saying they manifest mutual benefits on the principle of trade proportion and were achieved via the demonstration of sincerity and good will by both sides, rather than concessions made by either side.

She noted that Taiwan has managed to put into the agreement a safety valve, as evidenced by the inclusion of the passage "the agreement is based on the basic principles of the WTO (World Trade Organization) and takes into account the economic conditions of both sides" in the preface of the agreement. As a result, there will be no deadline for Taiwan to open up the domestic markets for sensitive items and the nation can decide the timing for the market opening on the sheer consideration of economic conditions, according to Lai.

Lai especially complimented the Intellectual Property Agreement, to be signed along with ECFA today, noting that it includes concrete and detailed arrangements, to assure the enforcement of the pact pointed out that China will recognize the priority rights for patent applications made in Taiwan, either by Taiwanese or foreign enterprises.