Taiwan Today

Nearly 76 percent of top executives at Taiwan’s largest companies favor the signing of a cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement, according to the results of a survey by China Credit Information Service Ltd. released Nov. 12. Of the 298 respondents in the poll, 75.9 percent said they believe that such a pact would be beneficial for Taiwan. David Chang, president of the credit agency, said that the island’s major corporations are worried that Taiwan will become more isolated economically after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations members plus one (mainland China) implement mutual exemption of tariffs next year. ASEAN plus three (mainland China, Japan and South Korea) would do the same in 2012. The survey showed that 76.5 percent of the executives, all of whom hold the position of vice president or higher in their respective enterprises, believe that the signing of an ECFA with the mainland will help Taiwan avoid becoming marginalized. At the same time, 53.1 percent of the respondents said that such a pact would be beneficial to the development of their own company. Liu Jen, editor-in-chief of the agency’s R&D Department of Business Credit, noted that the U.S, European and Japanese chambers of commerce in Taipei all support the inking of a cross-strait ECFA before the island pursues economic cooperation agreements with their respective nations. In this situation, Liu claimed that “Taiwan really has no other choice but to sign the ECFA sooner or later.” However, the respondents also voiced concerns about the possible negative impacts of such a deal, with 53 percent fearing that Chinese products will flood into the domestic market, and 48.3 percent expressing worries that it will result in aggravated unemployment on the island. More than half of the executives, however, do not feel a sense of urgency to conclude an ECFA right away, according to the survey results. A total of 53 percent mentioned that they hope the government ensures that Taiwan’s interests are sufficiently protected and that it obtains certain promises before inking the deal. Another 25.2 percent said the details of the pact should be worked out before it is signed, while only 10.1 percent said the details can be dealt with afterwards. Meanwhile, 9.1 percent of the respondents said that the question of signing an ECFA with the mainland should be put to a referendum. The survey was conducted via telephone between Nov. 4-9 on executives from companies across various sectors, including the electronics, retailing, high technology and traditional industries. With a confidence level of 95 percent, the poll is said to have a margin of error of 4.02 percentage points. (SB)