Taiwan, Beijing to resume free-trade pact talks after long delay due to fierce protests
Taiwan and Beijing will this week resume talks on a goods free-trade agreement after negotiations were delayed due to vocal opposition by locals suspicious of closer ties with Beijing, officials said on Sunday.
Taiwan and Beijing will this week resume talks on a goods free-trade agreement after negotiations were delayed due to vocal opposition by locals suspicious of closer ties with Beijing, officials said on Sunday.
The three-day talks would reopen on Wednesday after being delayed for about five months, including massive protests in Taipei and a weeks-long blockade of parliament by students, but an economics ministry official reached by AFP would not give details.
The South China Morning Post reported last week that the mainland’s top negotiator with Taiwan said the “ball is in Taiwan’s court” regarding the signing of a bilateral agreement on trade in goods, the Central News Agency reported.
Chen Deming, head of the mainland’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, said at the time it could be “difficult” to finalise the pact before Beijing and Seoul signed a free-trade agreement. Chen met his counterpart Lin Join-sane in Hangzhou last week.
Taiwan’s economic affairs minister Woody Duh has said flat panels, petrochemicals, machine tools and cars will be on top of Taiwan’s agenda.