Taiwan official promotes common market in Beijing
( 2001-05-09 16:59 ) (9 )

Former Taiwanese ``premier'' Vincent Siew called Wednesday for a common market between Taiwan and the mainland to bind the two sides closer together and boost booming cross strait trade.

"Both sides recognize that economic cooperation is a mutually win-win situation and both sides know that peaceful exchanges promote this," Siew told a symposium at the Peking University.

"So going forward we need to turn this mutual trust into a systematic safeguard."

The establishment of a common market between the two sides based on the normalization of economic and trade relations could become the foundation for the safeguards, he said.

"As cross-strait political issues remain divergent and unresolved ... we need to ask ourselves whether or not there is enough wisdom on both sides of the strait to create a system that can gradually dissolve political contradictions, while increasing mutual economic benefits," he said.

The prominent Taiwanese opposition leader arrived in Beijing Tuesday and is the second vice chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) Party to visit the mainland in the last 50 years.

He also serves as the head of the Cross Strait Common Market Foundation.

Siew urged both sides to establish cross-strait free trade zones with the goal of eventually linking up monetary, tax, foreign exchange and macro-economic policies.

The establishment of a common market would not only aid the resolution of political differences, but could give the mainland and Taiwan a greater say in building a rules-based global economic system, he said.

Siew is expected to meet Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen in Beijing and visit Wang Daohan, chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, in Shanghai.