TAIPEI: "Minister of Economic Affairs" Shih Yen-shiang yesterday aggressively promoted the necessity of signing the ECFA with Beijing.

Speaking at a legislative session, Shih said that if the proposed trade agreement is not signed, Taiwan's petrochemical, machinery, textile and auto parts industries will suffer a great negative impact after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus one (the mainland) free-trade area went into effect on January 1.

As Taiwan's economy has shown signs of recovery, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics last month forecast an economic growth of 4.39 percent for this year, Shih added.

If the ECFA is signed, Beijing will be more amenable to Taiwan signing free trade agreements with other countries and other countries will be more willing to sign free-trade agreements (FTAs) with Taiwan, Shih added.

Meanwhile, a government-conducted opinion poll found more than 50 percent of respondents support putting the ECFA on the agenda at the next round of talks with Beijing, slated for later this year.

According to the survey, conducted by the Executive Yuan's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, 50.9 percent of the respondents said they agree with a consensus reached by Taiwan and the mainland in their last round of talks in December. The survey also shows 24.8 percent of the respondents disagree with the decision.

Meanwhile, 55.2 percent of those polled said they are satisfied with the agreement on agricultural inspections and quarantine, although 17.6 percent said they were not satisfied.

The poll questioned 1,087 respondents and was conducted between December 28-29, 2009. It had a margin of error of plus/minus 2.97 percent.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 01/05/2010 page2)