GENEVA - Taiwan and China held
their first official bilateral consultation meeting
under the auspices of the World Trade Organization
(WTO).
Although the two sides did not reach any
consensus during the meeting, the fact that the
consultation meeting took place in itself was a positive
event, putting the cross-Strait interaction mechanism
under the WTO framework in motion.
One major
obstacle to the holding of such bilateral consultations
had sprung up when Beijing apparently tried to downgrade
Taiwan's status by using the term "economic and trade
office" to describe the island's "permanent
representative mission" to the WTO in a letter to the
Taiwan mission informing it of its intention of holding
such consultations.
Taipei responded to the
apparent slight by terming it "inappropriate" and saying
it violated the "principle of truthfulness and
reliability". While expressing its wishes to hold
consultations with the mainland, Taipei also reminded
Beijing in a December 5 letter that the Taiwan mission's
official designation is "permanent representative
mission".
During the three-hour meeting on Thursday,
the two sides proceeded with an in-depth
discussion on issues regarding mainland China's
"safeguard measures" on imports of 27 different steel
products. The measures entered into effect on November 20 and will
last until May 23, 2005.
Sources close to the
Taiwan permanent mission to the WTO said that the Taipei
officials raised questions about why Beijing has adopted
the measures, such as how it came to the conclusion that
Taiwan's steel exports to mainland China had sharply
increased and caused harm to the mainland Chinese steel
industry.
Beijing's
formally adopted "safeguard
measures" include "customs quota" restrictions on all
future steel imports, with Taiwan steel product exports
to the mainland being subject to different quota
restrictions in accordance with different categories of
products. A Taiwan trade official stationed in Geneva
has said that the measures will have a direct impact on
five categories of Taiwan steel exports, indicating that
the estimates have put the total figure at more than
US$1 billion.
Thursday's
consultation meeting was defined as a "professional and
technical level contact under the WTO framework", with a total of nine
middle-ranking officials from the Taiwan and mainland
Chinese delegations to the WTO participating.
Nevertheless, a mainland Chinese official
emphasized that the consultation meeting was held in
accordance with Article 12, Section 3 of the WTO
safeguard agreement and that the only issue discussed
was mainland China's adoption of the "safeguard
measures" on imports of steel products and related
problems.
