The 10th round of negotiations on the trade in goods agreement between Taiwan and mainland China is being held in Beijing. The three-day negotiations, which began Tuesday, are focusing on issues such as market opening and tariff concessions.
The Taiwan delegation is engaging its mainland Chinese counterpart in talks on preferential tariff status for the at-risk automotive, display panel, machine tool and petrochemical industries.
The negotiations are being held behind closed doors per China’s request. But Taiwan’s economics ministry says the delegation will hold a press conference to give a report on the talks. The ministry says the negotiations will be 100% transparent and public.
Meanwhile, Economics Minister John Deng has said he has given negotiators working out a trade deal in Beijing a degree of flexibility.
Deng said he has had no contact with the negotiators about the progress of the talks because he has concerns about the reliability and security of Mainland China’s communications system. He explained that he has already outlined the limits of what Taiwan can accept and that there is no need to check in daily on the negotiations.