Taiwan ratifies trade pact
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The board of directors of her bank has already agreed to set up an office in Tianjin and is prepared to launch a leasing company in the Yangtze River Delta region, she added.
Some 800 supporters of the ECFA rallied in the local legislature Wednesday holding banners with slogans such as "Open the economic channel to Taiwan," China Review News reported Wednesday.
However, the DPP and some others who opposed the ECFA, claim that the agreement would further add to Taiwan's reliance on the mainland and reduce Taiwan's political options.
Dozens of opponents protested outside the legislature Tuesday.
Yang Lixian, a researcher with the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the ECFA could bring direct economic benefits and more jobs to the island, which was heavily hit by the financial crisis.
Taiwan's export-oriented economy recovered from the global financial crisis with its GDP in the first quarter of the year growing 13.27 percent, hitting a 32-year high.
ut the growth momentum is slowing amid uncertainties about the prospects of the global economy.
A Dow Jones Newswires economists' poll expected the island's second-quarter GDP to grow 10.5 percent from a year earlier.
Yang noted that the signing of the pact brings Taiwanese more aligned with the peaceful development promoted by the ruling Kuomintang and boosts public trust in Ma Ying-jeou.
Politicians in Taiwan are also concerned that Taiwan will be marginalized as a result of a free-trade agreement (FTA) between the mainland and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
China and ASEAN launched an FTA at the beginning of the year, under which the average tariff on goods from ASEAN countries to China is cut to 0.1 percent and Chinese goods enjoy a tariff cut in the six original ASEAN members.
Kaohsiung magistrate Yang Chiu-hsing, who is currently running for mayor of Kaohsiung, told the Singapore-based Lianhe Zaobao that he conditionally supports the pact because Taiwan risks being marginalized without it.
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