China postpones free trade talks with Taiwan
Reuters | Feb 4, 2010
China postpones free trade talks with Taiwan
TAIPEI (Reuters) — China has postponed a second round of free trade talks with Taiwan until after the Lunar New Year holiday and the Taiwanese side downplayed any political reason for the delay.
The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), which the export-reliant island hopes to sign in the first half of this year, could lower tariffs and increase investment across the Straits as well as opening the door for Taiwan to press ahead with free trade agreements with Southeast Asian nations.
The second round of negotiations will be delayed until late February or early March as Beijing has said there is "no way" to send negotiators to the island earlier, the Taipei-based China Times newspaper reported on Thursday.
Taiwan’s China policymaking body confirmed the estimated dates but said they did not represent a delay in talks.
Taiwan’s acceptance of a $6.4 billion package of U.S. weapons has had no effect on trade talks despite Beijing’s outrage toward Washington, said a media relations officer at Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Office, a government body.
U.S.-China tensions are on the rise over trade and currency imbalances, with the Taiwan and Tibet issues an additional irritant, but Beijing has kept the gloves on in its dealings with Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang or Nationalist Party, to avoid alienating the Taiwanese public.
In preliminary meetings late last month, Taiwan and China had pledged to accelerate negotiations for ECFA.
An official at China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said her agency had "no related information so far" about a postponement.
(Reporting by Ralph Jennings and Huang Yan, writing by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Ron Popeski)
