Yan Qingzhang was the Minister of Finance and the first Permanent Ambassador to the WTO.

(file photo)

Yan Qingzhang:

(Former Minister of Finance, the first Permanent Ambassador to WTO)

On the 8th of this month, the Chinese government announced the ban on 887 items of aquatic products, 123 items of beverages and 110 items of biscuits from Taiwan.

This is a major news that can be called a bolt from the blue. When the Executive Yuan and relevant ministries are severely criticizing the Chinese government and formulating countermeasures, it seems that a small number of people are responding to China and bombarding China at gunpoint.

According to China’s announcement of the above-mentioned draft regulations in November 2019, since import permits must have registration document review standards, it not only increases the operating cost of the import licensing process, but also hides obscure words that are difficult to follow, and exporters may even need to explain business Confidential matters, such as the famous Taiwanese pastry shop "Jiade Pineapple Cake" was requested to provide the pineapple cake recipe and the size of the factory, etc. Jiade Company decided to give up the refill.

"Yimei Foods" also reported that the content of supplements required by China involved commercial secrets. It voluntarily gave up the supplements two years ago, and has not exported products to China for many years!

Please read on...

According to the WTO multilateral trading system, the "Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade" (Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade), the predecessor of the WTO, the GATT, was signed in 1947, and there is still a lack of relevant regulations.

In March 1975, the "Tokyo Round" was finally included in the negotiating agenda. The "Tokyo Round" (Tokyo Round) completed in 1979 followed the consensus of all member states and produced norms applicable to all member states.

In 1994, GATT was converted into WTO's "Uruguay Round". This agreement further restricted the improper effect of import licensing documents, and required member states to fully accept the trade interests of member states before publishing the procedures for import documents. Inquiries and opinions, so that it will not become a trade barrier, and all member states share the "most favored nation treatment", that is, no discriminatory measures should be taken against any member state.

This agreement, like all WTO multilateral trade norms, is a legal obligation that the existing 164 member states must abide by, including China and Taiwan!

In November 2019, when China announced the above-mentioned draft regulations, from February 2020 to November of the same year, the nine regular meetings of the WTO "Technical Trade Obstacles Committee" (TBT Committee) have triggered a series of meetings including the United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Switzerland, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia, the Philippines, Peru and my country have continuously or successively expressed "Special Trade Concern".

However, the nature of the meeting of this committee is only to provide a platform for communication or integration of different opinions of relevant member states, and it does not have the function of promoting consensus opinions, let alone a trade dispute settlement mechanism.

To be fair, Taiwan’s participation in the committee’s nine regular meeting’s questioning and criticism of our government’s inaction is obviously untrue, but saying that it has continued to express: “The registration is an obstacle to free trade created by China” is also a bit over-interpreted, because China The story is completely false, especially discriminatory against Taiwan!

In view of the fact that Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council of China, firmly stated: "The regulation optimizes the registration process, implements classified management for different types of overseas production enterprises, and clarifies the main responsibility of the enterprise and the supervision responsibility of the local competent authority, which is also conducive to the protection of consumer food. Safety".

With the "nine-in-one general election" on November 26, China beat the DPP government with this ban, and no longer picked the wrong date to support the DPP election.

So no matter what method Taiwan uses to send information to China today, it will definitely end up being unreadable.

As the relevant ministries and committees plan countermeasures, I would like to offer the following three suggestions for the government's consideration:

(1) my country should submit a petition to the WTO for dispute settlement: Recently, a head of state said: "We do not rule out going to the WTO to appeal." The tone is not only a bit negative, but also there is no "appeal" channel in the WTO mechanism.

China has violated the legal obligations of the WTO's "Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement" and caused huge losses to Taiwan's trade interests.

To sum up, it should be sufficient to assert and provide evidence.

This is not only the existence and effectiveness of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, but also can dispel China's evil intention of deliberately positioning Taiwan's economic and trade relations as a domestic matter.

During the process, we strongly invite the United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada and other friendly member states to participate in the "Victim Alliance" of "Third Parties" (Third Parties), and require China to face legal consultations together. A task worth the effort.

(2) The government cooperates with the industry to diversify the export market: Taiwan's export products are highly dependent on the Chinese market, coupled with China's unchanging stance of completely denying Taiwan's national sovereignty, has added a lot of national risk doubts.

As far as this case is concerned, the fact that the Chinese government was able to "kill Taiwan" is still due to Taiwan's excessive dependence on the Chinese market for many products.

For example, currently about 90% of Taiwanese black tea products, whiskey and some fresh fruit products are exported to the Chinese market.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture of advanced member countries of WTO, the primary task is to assist agricultural products to remove various export trade obstacles.

So far, my country's Agricultural Commission has made outstanding achievements in expanding overseas markets for agricultural products. However, how to combine individual farmers and agricultural organizations to further strengthen agricultural organic cultivation, curb improper residues of pesticides, and implement product grading and packaging, will make high-quality Taiwanese agricultural products available. More opportunities for international marketing strategies.

This is where the government and industry should learn from this case!

(3) Face up to the abolishment of ECFA: On October 29, 2010, under the active promotion of President Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan and China signed the ECFA, which belongs to the WTO system "Free Trade Agreement" (FTA).

However, the "Trade in Services Agreement" attached to it, because of the high dissatisfaction among the Taiwanese people, finally broke out the "Sunflower Student Movement".

However, the various agreements of the ECFA have not been fully completed. The DPP Central Committee has been in power for more than eight years, and the ECFA is like an incomplete FTA.

Where do we go from here?

Without a clear policy interpretation, wouldn't it be difficult for all Chinese people to understand!

At that time, in order to please Taiwanese farmers, China proposed an "early harvest list" for exporting agricultural products to China. This time, the Chinese government officially banned the import of all Taiwanese fish products.

In other words, this part of the agricultural early-harvest list has officially come to an end. Although the impact on Taiwan's fishery output value exceeds NT$6 billion, isn't this the moment when the Taiwan government should face up to the abolition of ECFA?

In particular, Taiwan is also fortunate to participate in the WTO democratic camps such as the United States, the European Union, and Japan.

How Taiwan makes a decision may clearly show that "political enemies cannot expect to be long-term economic friends" (whether nations which are politically enemies are not likely to remain economic friends for long)!

Grasp the pulse of the economy with one hand I subscribe to Free Finance Youtube channel

Already added friends, thank you

Welcome to 【Free Finance】

feel good

Already liked it, thank you.

related news