Taipei, Oct. 20 (CNA) In its negotiations with China on an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), Taiwan will maintain its stance of not fully opening its market to Chinese goods, despite Beijing's complaints about the restrictions, Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOTF) Director-General Huang Chih-peng said Tuesday. Huang made the remarks one day after China's Ministry of Commerce released a research report on the proposed cross-Taiwan Strait ECFA, which stated that Taiwan's current restrictions on cross-strait trade and investment are hampering the expansion of economic cooperation between the two sides and are unfavorable to the promotion of the ECFA.
Huang said he is not surprised at such reports because there are indeed more than 2,000 items that Taiwan has kept on its restricted list. They include 830 agricultural products and some industrial products, which will remain banned even after the signing of the ECFA, he said.
President Ma Ying-jeou has been pushing for the signing of the ECFA with China in an effort to reduce the impact on Taiwan of the new China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) free trade area.
Critics of the proposed pact, however, argue that it will undermine Taiwan's sovereignty and unleash a flood of cheap Chinese imports on the Taiwan market and spur an exodus of capital that will worsen Taiwan's already record high unemployment.
(By Yang Su-min and Y.F. Low)
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