A few days ago, China's Ministry of Commerce conducted a barrier investigation on Taiwan's restrictive measures against the mainland, and gave the results of the investigation. From the point of view of time, compared with the previously announced deadline for the investigation, January 12, 2024, is obviously advanced. In fact, this shows that the mainland has found sufficient evidence in the course of the investigation, and on the other hand, it also shows that the mainland's erroneous attitude toward the Taiwan authorities on cross-strait economic and trade issues has reached an intolerable point.
However, in the face of the mainland's showdown, the Taiwan authorities are still unrepentant, indicating that they want to "confront" the mainland on this issue. Taiwan's economic and trade organization later claimed that the mainland's move had violated the relevant mechanisms and norms of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and was completely inconsistent with the facts, and Taiwan would never accept it, calling on Chinese mainland to immediately stop "political manipulation." He also stressed that the two sides could start consultations at any time in accordance with the WTO mechanism. The implication of the Taiwan authorities' remarks is that they believe that the mainland's investigation does not comply with the regulations and will file a complaint with the WTO. Obviously, the Taiwan authorities are trying to portray themselves as weak people so that they can gain the support of the international community and make the mainland make concessions.
As a matter of fact, regardless of whether the WTO will ignore the Taiwan authorities or not, just looking at the basis of the mainland's investigation, the Taiwan authorities will be able to "fight" at all. First of all, the authorities unilaterally banned the import of 2,509 products from the mainland;Secondly, the authorities have taken restrictive measures against the mainland, in violation of the ECFA related"Progressively reduce or eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers for a substantial majority of goods** between the two sides"The terms have harmed the interests of relevant industries and enterprises in the mainland, as well as the interests of Taiwanese consumers. Finally, Taiwan's benefit from tariff concessions through the ECFA is about 8 percent of that of the mainland8 times, but Taiwan has not reduced its restrictions on mainland China, but has increased the number of prohibited imports.
Therefore, the actions of the Taiwan authorities are not conducive to the solution of the problem at all. On the other hand, the Kuomintang is seriously thinking about how to maintain good economic and trade relations with the mainland, and Kuomintang Chairman Zhu Lilun has said that if the Kuomintang wins the election, it will face economic and trade issues with the mainland with a positive attitude. In addition, Zhu Lilun did not forget to remind *** If you can't solve the problem well, then let Hou Youyi come, and there is no lack of meaning of "giving *** a war letter" between his words.
It is worth noting that since the mainland launched an investigation into the barriers to Taiwan, it has been interpreted by the island as a precursor to the mainland's termination of ECFA, and now such an atmosphere is undoubtedly stronger. This made Hou Youyi, who is also a candidate of the Kuomintang, deeply worried. He said that if the ECFA is broken, it will cause great damage to Taiwan's economy. In addition, Hou Youyi criticized *** for slandering the mainland's normal survey results as a means of mediation, which is really ridiculous. In fact, there is really no problem with Hou Youyi's words, ** while eating the dividends of ECFA, while smearing the policy of benefiting Taiwan, and once referring to ECFA with "sugar-coated poison", this practice is really evil. As for Hou Youyi's statement, even Ke Wenzhe, who has always held a vacillating stance on the cross-strait issue, expressed his agreement in disguise. Ke Wenzhe said that there are many cross-strait economic exchanges, but they still need to be negotiated, and the ECFA is a complex and professional issue, which requires the two sides to sit down and talk.
It must be pointed out that so far, although the Ministry of Commerce has not announced the details and sanctions, in fact this is giving the Taiwan authorities a chance to admit their mistakes. You must know that the island has now used words such as "nuclear bomb-level impact" and "** barrier tsunami" to describe the influence of the mainland's announcement. This is enough to prove that the mainland's thunderous tactics have really deterred some petty people on the island. In this way, it seems that the mainland used to practice "economic economy before administration" toward Taiwan, and the "economy" here refers to concessions, but it is far from achieving the results we want; if we now change our thinking and implement a new "economic economy before politics," that is, we will first talk about politics with economic siege, and perhaps there will be different feedback.