UNTIL ELECTIONS:
Beijing wants Taiwanese to sense that cross-strait trade is in crisis ahead of next year’s elections, creating a new type of pressure, an expert said
By Chen Cheng-hui and Shelley Shan / Staff reporters
China yesterday announced it has extended an investigation into import restrictions imposed by Taiwan on more than 2,400 Chinese products to Jan. 12 next year, the day before Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce announcement adds to tensions across the Taiwan Strait that have been ratcheted up by frequent Chinese military incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone and territorial waters ahead of next year’s elections.
Beijing’s probe, first announced on April 12 and which was supposed to be concluded by Thursday, is looking at import restrictions that Taiwan has imposed on 2,455 types of products from the agricultural, textile and mineral sectors in China.
Photo: Liao Chia-ning, Taipei Times
“In view of the complexity of this case,” the Chinese ministry extended the probe by three months, a statement posted on its Web site said.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement that “Taiwan has always maintained an open attitude regarding trade issues, and is willing to negotiate and deal with China under the WTO framework.”
Taiwan firmly backs local industries and would work with businesses in responding to the potential challenges posed by the investigation, the ministry said.
Chang Wu-yue (張五岳), a professor at Tamkang University’s Institute of Mainland China Studies, said that Beijing’s extension of the probe until one day before polls open in Taiwan shows that China is attempting to affect the outcomes of the presidential and legislative elections.
“The restrictions that Taiwan imposes on China-made products have existed since Taiwan joined the WTO in 2002. However, China had never talked about investigating trade barriers in the past 21 years, not even in its negotiations over the economic cooperation framework agreement with Taiwan. This shows that having trade barriers is not a main cross-strait trade issue,” the Chinese-language United Daily News quoted Chang as saying.
“The purpose of Beijing launching a trade-barrier investigation at this moment is to influence the presidential and legislative elections… It wants to highlight that it dominates cross-strait relations. Meanwhile, it wants Taiwanese to sense that cross-strait trade is facing a crisis ahead of the presidential and legislative elections in January. Such unprecedented pressure has never appeared in previous elections,” he said.
Cross-strait affairs experts are not surprised that the Chinese commerce ministry would extend the trade investigations into January next year, given that none of the presidential candidates has a decisive lead in the race, Chang said.
“We also expect that China would conclude that cross-trade trade barriers do exist, and they are likely to announce the results of their investigations as well as retaliatory measures against Taiwan on or before Jan. 12,” he said.
The Mainland Affairs Council yesterday urged Beijing to stop politicizing cross-strait trade.
“Both Taiwan and China are WTO members, and we have been expressing a wish to negotiate with China in accordance with WTO regulations. All trade issues can be effectively addressed through mechanisms and regulations set by the WTO,” the council said.
Additional reporting by Chen Yu-fu
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