Taipei, Feb. 9, 2010 (CENS)--After having reached the agreements on postal and transportation links, Taiwan and China will enter talks for thornier issues, including cross-Taiwan Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), taxation agreement, and agreement for intellectual-protection protection, said P.K. Jiang, chairman of Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) yesterday (Feb. 8).

There, for instance, exist major differences between Taiwan and China over the contents of EFCA. One major issue is the request of China for Taiwan to remove its existing discriminatory treatment for entrance of Chinese goods into the Taiwanese market, which was raised by the representatives of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARARS) during the first ECFA talk with SEF in Beijing last month.

Another issue is the demand of Taiwan not to open its market to more than 800 Chinese agricultural products, according to the pledge of President Ma Ying-jeou, which was put forth during by SEF representatives during the Beijing talk.

Major difference also exists between the two sides for the taxation agreement, forcing them to abort the plan to sign the agreement during the previous talk between SEF and ARATS in Taichung.

In addition, the government will have to overcome the concern of many local people over the effect of ECFA on various economic sectors and achieve an internal consensus for the support of the agreement. For that purpose, President Ma Ying-jeou is scheduled to brief local people on the agreement during a press conference today. The press conference will be part of the intensive campaign by the government for promoting ECFA this year, in order to facilitate the smooth implementation of the agreement.

(by Philip Liu)