The Chinese mainland supports the corresponding measures made by relevant authorities in light of the initial probes of trade barriers and in accordance with the relevant regulations, said Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for China's State Council Taiwan Affairs Office on Friday, warning that Taiwan trade restrictions are harmful to cross-Straits relations. 

According to the initial probes, Taiwan's trade restrictions on Chinese mainland are at odds with the requirements of the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and possibly break the WTO's regulations on gradual reduction of tariffs and non-tariff barriers, the spokesperson said.

Earlier, China's Ministry of Commerce announced initial findings in its ongoing probe into Taiwan authorities' trade restrictions and urged the Taiwan region to effectively fulfill its WTO commitments.

Initial findings by the Commerce Ministry have indicated the island authority's trade restrictive measures against goods from the Chinese mainland have violated the non-discrimination principle and rule of general elimination of quantitative restrictions of the WTO, Zhu said, reiterating that the region's restrictive trade measures have a negative impact on the interests of relevant industries and enterprises from the mainland as well as consumers in the Taiwan region. 

The enterprises and business associations from both sides that participated in the probe urge Taiwan authorities to lift its trade restrictive measures against the mainland as soon as possible, she said.

Noting that the Democratic Progressive Party has not only failed to take practical measures to lift the discriminatory trade restrictions on the mainland, but has also continued to intensify them, Zhu pointed out that products involved in the investigation grew from 2,455 when the request was filed to 2,509 at present.

(Cover: View of Taipei, China's Taiwan region. /CFP)