A second round of formal negotiations on a wide-reaching trade accord stretching across the Taiwan Straits will open in Taipei tomorrow (Wednesday), the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) announced Monday.

Negotiators from both sides will meet in Taipei March 31-April 1 for a second round of talks on the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), the quasi-official organization said.

The SEF announced the schedule for the second round of ECFA talks after receiving confirmation of the date from its mainland counterpart - the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) earlier in the day, an SEF official said.

The Taiwan delegation will be headed by Huang Chih-peng, director-general of the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) under the "Ministry of Economic Affairs", according to the official.

The mainland delegation will be composed of ARATS board members and officials of trade and economic departments based in Beijing, who will attend the meeting as ARATS advisers.

The mainland delegation will arrive in Taipei in several groups today, according to the SEF.

The second round of talks will focus on the contents of "early harvest" programs for merchandise and services, namely, lists of products and services to be subject to immediate tariff concessions or exemptions, as well as the text of the agreement and the agenda for future rounds of negotiations, the SEF official said.

Members of the Taiwan delegation will include Lee Li-chen, head of the Mainland Affairs Council's (MAC) Department of Economic Affairs, and Wu Mei-hung, head of the MAC's Department of Legal Affairs, as well as officials of the BOFT, the Financial Supervisory Commission, the Industrial Development Bureau, the MAC, the SEF and other relevant government agencies.

The first round of ECFA talks took place in Beijing January 26.

SEF and ARATS are quasi-official intermediary bodies authorized to handle cross-Straits exchanges and negotiations in the absence of official ties.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 03/30/2010 page4)