As the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won Taiwan's leadership election in January, the ratification of the service trade agreement signed with the Chinese mainland has been put on the backburner.

Li Yihu, dean of Peking University's Taiwan Studies Institute and also a deputy to the National People's Congress, China's legislature.?[Photo/China.org.cn]

"Taiwan's failure to rectify and implement the service trade agreement runs against international practice and amounts to a breach of contract," said Li Yihu, dean of Peking University's Taiwan Studies Institute and also a deputy to the National People's Congress, China's legislature.

The service trade agreement, which was inked in June 2013, would open 80 of the Chinese mainland's service sectors to Taiwan and 64 Taiwan sectors to the mainland. It was one step away from full ratification in Taiwan's "parliament" in March of last year when students stormed Taiwan's legislature to protest against the groundbreaking deal.

Taiwan is heavily dependent on the Chinese mainland. According to statistics, the mainland accounts for 40 percent of its exports. Many people in Taiwan have businesses and factories on the mainland.

The deal, which cut tariffs on up to 5,000 categories of goods shipped to China, compared with about 1,000 goods now, would give a big boost to Taiwan's economy.

"If the deal isn't pushed through, Taiwan is largely on the losing end," asserted Li.

Since Taiwan's leadership election concluded in January, leading to a caretaker phase, most cross-Strait negotiations, including talks on the trade-in-goods agreement, have been virtually frozen, Li added.

"Since May 2008, the development of cross-Strait relations has garnered good momentum and accomplished a slew of results, and more than 20 deals have been signed," Li said. "Those are very solid results achieved on the basis of the '1992 Consensus' and opposition to Taiwan independence."

Li cautioned that one problem for the cross-Strait trade relations is that not all the people in Taiwan feel they are benefitting from these relations while industries such as tourism and catering would directly benefit from friendly relations.

Considering how to convince more people in Taiwan of the benefits of deeper ties with the Chinese mainland in the future is an important job, he suggested.

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