Ma Ying-jeou: There's a lot of misunderstanding about the trade agreement.

Absrtact: September 28 News According to Taiwanese media, Taiwan's leader, Ma Ying-jeou, has once again given an interview with overseas media about the cross-Strait service trade agreement that triggered the sun-flower movement this year, saying that we feel that Taiwan opposes the mainland

September 28 According to Taiwanese media reports, Taiwan's leader, Ma Ying-jeou, recently received an interview with overseas media about the cross-Strait service trade agreement that triggered the sun-flower movement this year, and pointed out that we felt a sense of fear in Taiwan against those dealing with the mainland (inexplicable Fear), there is no strong rational basis, just hate, do not like the mainland. As a result, some of the openness that is harmless to us, or even beneficial, is sometimes treated as an injury.

Ma Ying-jeou data map

Mr Ma spoke of the evidence from Hong Kong that the mainland's role in the region has become stronger. Taiwan, he says, is a small and open economy, with 70% of Taiwan's economic growth dependent on foreign trade. And the mainland has become the world's second largest economy, in 2003 also became Taiwan's largest trading partner. So whether we like it or not, it is an objective economic reality, we have no way to change it, only in the process of development, choose some of our favorable way, do the best arrangements.

' We all know that trade with the mainland cannot be excessive, but we cannot trade with them, ' Mr Ma said. So close, the two sides in the cultural and geographical and other aspects of such close ties, and for Taiwan's manufacturers, to the mainland do business does have its niche.

On the anti-trade campaign launched by Taiwanese students, Mr Ma said many of the contents of the trade agreement were in fact misunderstood.

There are some projects that we are not open to, especially the open mainland to Taiwan media, and the lack of open access to mainland workers and even the opening of mainland taxis to Taiwan. The scope of the opening is not very large, but the opponents often exaggerate the content, saying that if we open up, we will allow millions of mainland workers to come to Taiwan, which is totally untrue.

Mr Ma further points out that this is often misunderstood because we sign up for a trade agreement, which does not involve the part of the People's Movement (the movement of arranges). A lot of people don't know, think we will open (these projects), in fact we will not. For example, we have strict restrictions on the opening up of mainland banks, so far we have only opened two. Opponents have a sense of fear, fear of dealing with the mainland, in fact, not so serious. In particular, some projects, especially retailing, have been open to now for four years and nothing has happened (happened). We also open restaurants, and many other services have been opened under the WTO framework before signing up for trade, and there is no problem now. But there are some academics who desperately talk about our opening up of mainland workers. On the contrary, we opened more than 200 mainland enterprises to Taiwan, they created more than 9,000 jobs, and did not bring mainland workers, only to bring corporate cadres (only executive Staff,no blue collar brought).

Mr Ma said that we were talking about these facts every day, but no one believed, so we felt it was an inexplicable fear (inexplicable fear). There is no strong rational basis, just hate, dislike the mainland. So sometimes it is a kind of injury to open up something that is harmless or even beneficial to us. Most importantly, if we do not trade with the mainland, some of our strong (industry), such as e-commerce (commerce) can not be able to go to the mainland.

At the same time, MA also stressed that we are very strict in the review of mainland enterprises to Taiwan, not easy to open, even after the signing, we will review, this is really not to worry about. From past records, there are so many returns that the mainland's interest in investing in Taiwan is not high because they feel too restrictive. In particular, we have signed a trade agreement with the mainland, and more than a year now, "Legislative Yuan" has not passed, and then said to renegotiate, which is not good for us in the international, overseas countries will think we are not reliable trading partners, Taiwan is a great harm. That is why the editorial in the Asian Wall Street Journal points out that Taiwan is Taiwan Leaves itself behind). In fact, it does not have such a big impact on Taiwan, and let us invest more in the mainland. In fact, it is more advantageous for us, our service industry can grow 37%, the mainland service industry will only grow by 9%.