Taiwan co-op deal will likely not be renewed

Ten-year agreement with mainland has helped many companies on island

A cooperation agreement across the Taiwan Straits that has benefited the island for about 10 years is likely not to be renewed when it expires in June, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, the mainland's Taiwan affairs authority, said on Wednesday.

The mainland and Taiwan signed the cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement in 2010, giving duty-free preferential policies to over 500 kinds of Taiwan products exported to the mainland. By the end of June, the mainland had cut tariffs on goods from Taiwan by a total of 37.5 billion yuan ($5.3 billion) under the agreement, according to the office.