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| Poll: 61 percent of Taiwan’s people suport ECFA |
 Poll: 61 percent of Taiwan’s people suport ECFA
At the fifth round of talks between Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung and mainland China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin in late June, the SEF and the ARATS signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and an agreement addressing protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). Results of a poll released July 6 by the Mainland Affairs Council showed that 61 percent of respondents were satisfied with the results of ECFA negotiations, with 63.6 percent affirming the result that 18 of Taiwan’s agricultural and fishery products can now be exported to the mainland free of tariff duties.
As to the trade agreement’s effects, 62.6 percent believed the pact would help Taiwan negotiate free trade agreements with other nations, while 59.2 percent thought that it would be good for the nation’s long-term economic development. Concerning the IPR agreement, 73.1 percent conveyed their approval. Meanwhile, the results of a separate survey published July 11 by the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission had 68.3 of those polled approving of the government’s efforts to improve cross-strait relations.
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang pointed out that the signing of the ECFA means that mainland China will lower tariffs on 539 products included in Taiwan’s early harvest list. This is expected to help Taiwan’s economy grow by 0.4 percent, or US$1.70 billion, and increase overall production value by 0.86 percent, or US$5.89 billion. Moreover, in the early stages of the ECFA’s implementation, 60,000 jobs will be created.
Half of the 539 products—including auto parts, household appliances, accessories, undergarments, shoes, socks, luggage and similar containers, bananas and tea—are made by less competitive traditional industries, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the agriculture sector. As these items were previously subject to tariff duty rates of 10 percent and higher, their inclusion in the early harvest list suggests the country’s manufacturers will be able to expand through increased sales in the mainland, Shih noted.
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