TAIPEI: Senior officials from Taiwan and China began talks in Taipei on Thursday to finalise the details of a controversial trade agreement which the two sides expect to sign next week.

The negotiations in Taiwan`s capital, which are scheduled to last just one day, are aimed at agreeing on a list of industries that will benefit first from the pact, known as the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, or ECFA.
"We want to create an environment for peace and stability, prosperity and mutual benefit," Kao Koong-lian, the head of the Taiwanese delegation, said at the start of the talks.

About 530 industrial items from Taiwan are expected to be allowed preferential tariffs as part of the deal, while Beijing is demanding about 270 Chinese items be placed on the early harvest list, according to local media.

Kao is secretary general of the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation, while his Chinese counterpart in the talks, Zheng Lizhong, is vice president of the quasi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits.

The two sides, which have never made formal peace since the end of a civil war in 1949, have set up the agencies to handle contacts in the absence of official ties.

Taiwan`s top negotiator Chiang Pin-kung is expected to travel to China early next week to put the signature on the much-debated agreement, a well-placefd source told AFP on Wednesday.

Taiwan and China have been governed separately since the civil war ended more than 60 years ago, but Beijing considers the island part of its territory and has vowed to get it back, by force if necessary.

BDST: 1227 HRS, June 24, 2010
SIS/RR