"As the fishery pact will be one of four agreements to be signed under an institutionalized cross-strait dialogue mechanism, it is unlikely to address any territorial issues because doing so would be incompatible with its purpose, " said Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan at a news briefing Tuesday.

The top cross-strait negotiators from both sides -- Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman P.K. Chiang and Chen Yunlin, president of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) -- are scheduled to meet in central Taiwan's Taichung City in mid-December for their fourth round of regular talks that began last year.

During their meeting, Chiang and Chen are expected to sign four agreements on fishing crew cooperation, avoidance of double taxation, cooperation in industrial product certification, and farm produce inspection and quarantine.

Noting that the soon-to-be-inked fishing crew pact will be the first formal accord in this field, Lai said the agreement is aimed at better protecting Taiwanese shipowners' rights and interests, as well as the benefits of the Chinese fishery workers they employ.

"Although cross-strait fishing crew cooperation dates back to 16 years ago, the two sides have never struck a formal deal on the issue, " Lai noted, adding that the absence of a formal agreement has led to frequent labor-management disputes and even tragic on-board mutinies over the past decade.

Since institutionalized cross-strait talks resumed in June 2008, Lai went on, the government has been pushing Beijing to sign a formal agreement to better regulate bilateral fishery worker cooperation.

"Under the new agreement, our fishing boat owners will be able to better control the quality of the workers they hire, while the Chinese crewmen will also have better leverage to secure fair treatment," Lai explained.

Stressing that the agreement will mainly deal with technical issues, Lai said its provisions will not touch on any sensitive issues regarding overlaps of the two sides' territorial waters, a joint crackdown on crime in the Taiwan Strait or cooperation in exploring energy resources in the East China Sea.

Speaking on the same occasion, Hu Hsing-hua, deputy minister of the Council of Agriculture, said that once the agreement is signed, each side will designate an intermediary body for direct contact to address mutual issues in the absence of official ties.

Because of China's sovereignty claim over Taiwan and its refusal to directly deal with Taiwan's government, Hu said the COA's Fisheries Agency is unlikely to be directly involved in fishing crew cooperation affairs. Details about the selection of a "parallel organization" will be decided later, he added.

For China's part, Hu continued, it is most concerned about workers' salaries and insurance benefits, while Taiwan cares most about the interests of its shipowners.

"Once the agreement is signed, formally authorized `parallel organizations' on both sides will be tasked with handling labor-management disputes and other emergencies, " Hu said, adding that the intermediary bodies will also tackle labor brokering and management issues.

At present, he went on, about 40,000 Chinese sailors and fishermen are working aboard Taiwanese deep-sea fishing vessels, while the number of Chinese citizens working aboard Taiwanese coastal fishing boats ranges between 4,500 and 5,000.

Each Chinese fishery worker is paid between NT$12,000 (US$372.67) and NT$14,000 per month, lower than Taiwan's minimum monthly wage of NT$17,280, Hu noted.

Under the new agreement, Hu said, Chinese crewmen are expected to get better pay, while Taiwanese shipowners will have easier access to better fishing crews.

Hu predicted that the number of Chinese fishery workers on Taiwanese vessels will not increase much after the signing of the pact because of market mechanisms.

As Taiwan has not yet opened its labor market to Chinese citizens, Hu said the principles of "offshore employment, offshore operations, short transit stay on shore" will remain unchanged under the new accord.

Chinese sailors and fishermen were first hired to work aboard Taiwanese deep-sea fishing vessels in 1993 and owners of ships operating in coastal waters followed suit shortly afterward.

In the early stages, the Chinese workers had to live aboard old hulks that were turned into floating dormitories moored in offshore areas. Out of humanitarian and safety concerns, however, they have been allowed to make transit stays at five special reception centers in Taiwanese coastal towns since 2003.

(By Liu Cheng-ching and Sofia Wu)