TAIPEI: "Minister of Economic Affairs" Shih Yen-shiang confirmed yesterday that the first round of official negotiations on a proposed cross-Straits economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) will be held at the end of January as scheduled.

Shih said that Huang Chih-peng, who heads the external trade section under the "Ministry of Economic Affairs" (MOEA), and Tang Wei, director of the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Department under the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing, will chair the negotiations.

Shih did not say where the meetings will take place, but the two sides have agreed the fifth round of cross-Straits trade talks will be held on the mainland, because the last round was in Taichung, central Taiwan last month.

The agenda of the first round will not touch on substantive issues such as the proposed "early harvest list" of industries that will be first to benefit from the agreement and only general suggestions and issues regarding the procedure will be discussed, according to Shih.

He stressed that the Executive Yuan intends to keep the process of negotiations highly transparent with the participation of the Legislative Yuan. The administration will also report the progress to the Legislative Yuan "as long as doing so does not distract from the negotiations."

Recently, think tanks from both sides of the Taiwan Straits conducted a joint research report on the proposed trade agreement, but the report was criticized by some local scholars as having revealed Taiwan's bottom line.

According to Shih, however, since the research report did not address the content of future negotiations, it will not distract from the negotiations.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 01/22/2010 page2)