Talks on a trade in goods agreement with China have opened in Taiwan. The negotiations will be the first of their kind in nearly five months.
The talks opened on Wednesday. Economics minister Woody Duh said on Wednesday that the negotiations will cover industries such as machine tools, flat panels, automobiles, and petrochemicals. But he also said that the agreement actually involves over 7,000 items, so the negotiations will take some time.
“Negotiations on a trade in goods agreement will take a long time, so we hope that the two sides will first talk about technical issues such as items eligible for tax reductions and the terms of tax reduction," said Duh. "This way we can save some time.”
Taiwan’s main negotiator, Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Jenni Yang, declined to comment on the details of the negotiation. She only said that she will talk publicly about the meetings at the end of the three-day negotiations.