President Ma Ying-jeou said Wednesday that the 21 pacts Taiwan has signed with China so far are all beneficial to Taiwan.
The president also said that since the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China in 2010, Taiwan has already saved NT$42 billion (about US$1.39 billion) in tariffs.
“Since 2011, [China has lowered their tariffs] from 15% to 10%, 5%, and eventually to zero for 539 export items from Taiwan," said Ma. "We’ve already saved NT$42 billion in tariffs alone. We might save even more in tariffs when a cross-strait trade in goods agreement is signed. In other words, [the agreements] we signed have helped exports to China.”
Meanwhile, President Ma also said the Agreement on Joint Cross-Strait Crime-Fighting and Mutual Judicial Assistance has also helped reduce the crime rate in Taiwan. Ma said that the focus of his cross-strait policy is to put Taiwan and Taiwanese people’s interest first. He said that his administration will only agree to deals that are beneficial to Taiwan.