Taiwan and China set to sign historic trade accord
The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, or ECFA, will remove barriers to trade and investment and foster closer economic ties.The accord, announced Thursday following two years of negotiations, was due to be formally signed in the Chinese city of Chongqing on Tuesday between senior trade delegates from both sides.
"Signing this agreement is not only an important milestone in economic ties between the two sides," the leader of the Taiwanese delegation, Chiang Pin-kung was cited as saying in an account by Agence France-Presse. "It's also a huge step forward for the two amid the trend of regional economic integration and globalization."
Under terms of the agreement, China will reportedly reduce tariffs on hundreds of items from Taiwan that could amount to $13.8 billion in savings, according to figures from the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits that were cited in a report by Bloomberg News.
Some Taiwanese lawmakers expressed opposition to the agreement, saying it marked a turning point in relations which could have far reaching consequence for the island and its government, which has been under self-rule since 1949.
"It adds to the concerns about the agreement that it could bring the island a step closer to the mainland," said Yang Yung-ming, a political scientist at Taipei's Soochow University was cited as saying in a report by AFP.
Source: marketwatch.com
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