Mainland's Taiwan affairs office supports suspension of preferential tariffs on some Taiwan chemicals

BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Thursday voiced support for the suspension of tariff reductions on some chemicals from the Taiwan region, a decision which was earlier announced by the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council.

Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority has long been imposing unilateral and discriminatory trade bans and restrictions on mainland products, breaching the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between the mainland and Taiwan, and damaging the interests of relevant mainland industries and enterprises, said Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

The ECFA is a comprehensive economic pact, intended to lower commercial barriers, signed by the two sides across the Taiwan Strait in June 2010 and which is based on the 1992 Consensus.

Since it was signed, the mainland has been facilitating and ensuring the implementation of the agreement, delivering tangible benefits to relevant enterprises and people on both sides of the Strait, especially to those in Taiwan, Zhu said.

However, in addition to discriminatory trade bans and restrictions on mainland products, the DPP also fiddled with the rules of the ECFA and set up obstacles, obstructing normal cross-Strait economic exchanges and cooperation and the implementation of the agreement, resulting in the suspension of preferential tariffs on certain Taiwan products.

Such issues could have been properly handled via cross-Strait negotiations, but the DPP authority obstinately adhered to the separatist position of "Taiwan independence" and refused to recognize the 1992 Consensus, which damaged the political foundation for cross-Strait negotiations and made it hard to properly handle the issues, said Zhu.

"We hope that cross-Strait relations will return to the right track of peaceful development, and that both sides can negotiate and solve the issues in cross-Strait economic and trade relations based on the 1992 Consensus," the spokesperson said.

According to a statement by the Customs Tariff Commission, with effect from Jan. 1, 2024, a total of 12 items of chemical products from Taiwan, including propylene and paraxylene, will stop enjoying the preferential tax rates stipulated by the ECFA.