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Jun. 29 – Negotiators from China and Taiwan completed a landmark trade agreement in Chongqing today that plans to increase bilateral trade by an estimated US$100 billion, slash tariffs on over 800 goods, and may prove to be the first step in a long and drawn out reunification process.
China, at least, hopes that the trade pact may rejuvenate talks that have been stalled since the Chinese Civil War more than 60 years ago. The deal, signed live on Chinese state television, seems to heavily favor the Taiwanese side and may come as an offering of good will from the island’s neighbor across the strait, or may be a political move by China to showcase the benefits to be had under the wing of the dragon.
Under the trade agreement, China will reduce tariffs on 539 Taiwanese goods valued at US$13.84 billion while only 267 Chinese goods valued at US$2.86 will receive similar treatment when entering Taiwan. Furthermore, some experts forecast that the deal will create as many as 260,000 jobs in Taiwan and could boost the island’s annual GDP growth more than a full percentage point, from 4.72 percent up past 6 percent.
The location of the deal’s signing is symbolic as well. Chongqing was where Communist Party leader Mao Zedong and Nationalist President Chiang Kai-shek attempted unsuccessfully to sign a truce in 1945 following the end of World War II. More than six decades after Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang fled to Taiwan in 1949, it is here in Chongqing that the two sides have come together to sign this historic deal.
Back in Taiwan, though, many citizens are protesting the signing of the trade agreement, which they believe compromises the sovereignty of Taiwan and places an overreliance on China. They are quick to point out that China still has not ruled out using force to achieve long held aspirations of reunifying Taiwan with the mainland and keeps thousands of missiles locked on targets in Taiwan just across the strait.
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