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Mainland to suspend tariff preference for Taiwan chemicals, expert says it's for trade considerations

CGTN

 , Updated 10:06, 23-Dec-2023

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The Chinese mainland decided to suspend tariff reductions on some chemicals from the Taiwan region as the latter's unilateral, discriminatory trade restrictions have violated the economic pact between the two sides.

With effect from January 1, 2024, a total of 12 chemical products from Taiwan, including propylene and paraxylene, will no longer be eligible for preferential tax rates stipulated by the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council said in a statement.

The ECFA is a comprehensive economic pact, intended to lower commercial barriers, signed by the two sides across the Taiwan Straits in June 2010 and based on the 1992 Consensus.

Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority has long been imposing unilateral and discriminatory trade bans and restrictions on mainland products, breaching the ECFA between the mainland and Taiwan, and damaging the interests of relevant mainland industries and enterprises, said Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

Since it was signed, the mainland has been facilitating and ensuring the implementation of the agreement, delivering tangible benefits to relevant enterprises and people on both sides of the Straits, especially to those in Taiwan, Zhu said.

However, in addition to discriminatory trade bans and restrictions on mainland products, the DPP also fiddled with the rules of the ECFA and set up obstacles, obstructing normal cross-Straits economic exchanges and cooperation and the implementation of the agreement, resulting in the suspension of preferential tariffs on certain Taiwan products.

Such issues could have been properly handled via cross-Straits negotiations, but the DPP authority obstinately adhered to the separatist position of "Taiwan independence" and refused to recognize the 1992 Consensus, which damaged the political foundation for cross-Straits negotiations and made it hard to properly handle the issues, said Zhu.

The Chinese mainland has never politicized trade, Qu Qiang, research fellow at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told CGTN. The mainland's move is based on trade considerations because mainland products and manufacturers have been treated unfairly, he added.

If the DPP authority further deviates from the existing trade policy for political purposes, the Chinese mainland will continue to take corresponding measures until trade is balanced, Qu said.

"We hope that cross-Straits relations will return to the right track of peaceful development and that both sides can negotiate and solve the issues in cross-Straits economic and trade relations based on the 1992 Consensus," Zhu said.

(With input from Xinhua; Cover: Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, speaks at a press conference, Beijing, December 13, 2023. /CFP)

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