CNA
September 11, 2014, 12:01 am TWN
TAIPEI -- Taiwan and China re-opened talks on a merchandise trade pact on Wednesday after negotiations were shelved for 10 months because of controversy in Taiwan over a trade-in-services pact the two sides signed in June 2013.
The meetings were attended by Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮), director general of Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign Trade, and Chen Xing (陳星), head of China's Ministry of Commerce's Department of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs.
The talks were held in Northern Taiwan, but the exact location was kept secret for security reasons, sources said.
Formal negotiations on the pact were previously held in October 2013. The next round of formal talks scheduled for April 2014 were postponed when the legislative review of the trade-in-services pact was derailed by opposition parties and a student protest movement.
The services trade agreement remains in limbo, with the Legislature in no hurry to review the pact.
The talks were set to resume by the end of August but were postponed at the request of Beijing, which said it did not have enough time to prepare adequately.
During the three days of talks to conclude on Sept. 12, Taiwanese negotiators will target machine tools, flat panels and petrochemical products for lower tariffs from China, said Economics Minister Duh Tyzz-jiun (杜紫軍).
Another focus will be the automobile industry, Duh said, because lower import duties on Taiwanese goods in China would boost the development of Taiwanese manufacturers of automobile components, he said.
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