On January 19th, Jiangsu Provincial Department of Commerce, Taipei World Trade Center and our council co-held the Briefing on ECFA Early-Harvest Program for Goods Trade in Nanjing. About 200 people from foreign trade companies in our province and the representatives of the Taiwan businessmen working in Nanjing participated the meeting. Our council took efforts to organize the representatives from the companies in the textile, medical, chemical and mechanical industries.

In his address, deputy director general of the Jiangsu Commerce Department, Zhao Jin said ECFA early-harvest list for goods trade had been officially taken into effect on January 1st this year. The duty rates of all the goods on the list will gradually drop to zero by three steps in two years, which provides a great business opportunity for the companies on both sides of the Straits.

The trade volumn between Jiangsu and Taiwan is the largest one in our country, taking up 1/4 of the total of the mainland trade with Taiwan. According to the trade situation, the goods trade on the early-harvest list between Jiangsu and Taiwan has fairly great complementarity with each other. Early-harvest program reduces the trade cost of relevant products, which is good for enhancing the goods’ competitive power and expanding Jiangsu-Taiwan trade. It is really good news for import and export enterprises on both sides of the Straits. In particular, the tariff reduction level and scale for Taiwan goods are bigger than those of the the goods from the mainland. Hence, importing from Taiwan will benefit more than exporting to Taiwan, which will bring more favorable opportunities for Jiangsu to enlarge the imports from Taiwan.

During the briefing, the researcher from Taipei World Trade Center, Mr. Li Shixun who made a special trip to Nanjing, analyzed all the important items in the ECFA early-harvest program and introduced the effective ways of finding the Taiwan suppliers. The trade affair director of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Shanghai, Mrs. Luo Suowei introduced the service of the Hong Kong Customs when dealing with the goods via Hong Kong under the ECFA agreement. On behalf of the importers and exporters in Jiangsu, Mr. Xie Yiming from Jiangsu Hengli Chemical Fiber Co. Ltd. shared his experience during the meeting.
After the meeting, the representatives from the companies all expressed that they had got a complete understanding of the policies and preferential measures in the ECFA early-harvest program. They have new ideas on how to find the Taiwan suppliers. Meanwhile, they hope to get help and support from our council in the future while doing the relevant business and implementing the program.

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