Taipei and Beijing signed a milestone economic cooperation framework agreement, along with a pact protecting intellectual property rights June 29, during the fifth round of talks between the two sides in Chongqing, mainland China.
The agreements were inked at 2:30 p.m. by Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation, and his counterpart Chen Yunlin of Beijing's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.
“During the past two years, the SEF and ARATS have convened four talks, signed 12 agreements and reached one major consensus,” Chiang said during the talks in the morning. “The hard-won normalization of cross-strait relations marks a win-win situation for both Taiwan and mainland China.”
The agreements reached through the talks cover a broad range of issues related to people’s lives, including opening Taiwan’s gates to direct flights and increased numbers of tourists from mainland China, Chiang added.
“With direct flights, Taipei and Chongqing are only three hours away,” Chiang said, noting that the same trip, with stops in between, used to take up to seven hours.
“From January to June 21, over 1.25 million mainlanders visited Taiwan,” Chiang said, highlighting the contributions of people-to-people exchanges to mutual understanding across the strait.
“With the signing of ECFA, a whole new page has opened for cross-strait economic talks,” said Chen, who also stressed that the mutually beneficial agreement was reached with both sides on equal terms.
When asked about the agreement during an afternoon news conference in Taipei, Premier Wu Den-yih said he expects to see the Legislative Yuan hold an extraordinary session in July to discuss the ECFA, as well as amendments to four related laws and regulations, including the customs import tariff, Patent Act, Plant Variety and Plant Seed Act, and Trademark Act.
“The issues at stake may require a second extraordinary session in August,” Wu said, adding that he anticipates the parliament will conclude the approval process before the end of this year. (THN)