Ma's 'Golden Decade' for Taiwan

The pact, officially called the economic cooperation framework agreement, or ECFA for short, will deepen Taiwan's economic ties with its erstwhile nemesis by reducing tariffs and dismantling trade barriers. The mainland is not only Taiwan's biggest export market, but also the largest source of its huge trade surplus, valued at more than US$30 billion a year.

Taiwan is expected to reap enormous benefits from the ECFA "” a monument of the Ma Ying-jeou presidency "” which gives more tariff concessions to Taiwan than the other way round, with 539 "early-harvest"� items for Taiwan's goods versus 267 items for China. The pact could boost Taiwan's gross domestic product by 1.6 percent and create more than 250,000 jobs, according to official estimates.

But the political benefits could be more significant for Taiwan, which desperately needs to shake off the suffocating international isolation, thanks to the Sino-phobic policies of former presidents Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian. But after the conclusion of ECFA, Taiwan would be more likely to negotiate free trade deals with its neighbors and trading partners when cross-strait relations improve and mutual confidence strengthens.

So, President Ma's "golden decade"� shouldn't be seen as a mere sound bite or a pipe dream. It is for real. Taiwan's GDP for 2010 has been revised upward to 6.8 percent, with first quarter growth soaring to an unprecedented 13.2 percent, obviously on China's coat tails. Now, aided by ECFA, the island's economy, which stagnated in the last two decades under Lee and Chen, could regain the kind of vitality and dynamism of the 60s and 70s. The "golden decade,"� when and if it arrives, would see the island's return to its good old days when it was the top dog of Asia's Four Tigers.

Similarly, mainland China's new milestone of eclipsing Japan as the world's No. 2 economic power can also be seen as a return to the country's past glory. For almost two millennia until 1820, the Middle Kingdom had been the world's largest economy, accounting for between one third and one half of the world's total output, according to data compiled by Angus Maddison, an economist who died early this year. Nicholas D. Kristof, the New York Times award-winning columnist and China hand, once named Chang An (now XiAn) as "the world capital"� in 500 A.D., and Kaifeng (then Bianliang) as the world's largest and most important city in 1000 A.D. But, "glory is as ephemeral as smoke and clouds,"� he lamented in a Chinese subhead: "辉煌如过眼�'烟"� in the New York Times.1|2|Next Page>>SharePrintEmailWrite a CommentEnter your comments - 3000 characters maxType in image codeSubmit Receive China Post promos Respond to this email Also in David TingUpdated Saturday, July 3, 2010 7:22 pm TWN▪It's World Cup time "” reverie of a soccer fan▪U.S., China rediscover nuclear energy▪A thunderbolt out of the 'blue'>SharePrintEmailWrite a CommentEnter your comments - 3000 characters maxType in image codeSubmit Receive China Post promos Respond to this email Also in David TingUpdated Saturday, July 3, 2010 7:22 pm TWN▪It's World Cup time "” reverie of a soccer fan▪U.S., China rediscover nuclear energy▪A thunderbolt out of the 'blue'>SharePrintEmailWrite a CommentEnter your comments - 3000 characters maxType in image codeSubmit Receive China Post promos Respond to this email Also in David TingUpdated Saturday, July 3, 2010 7:22 pm TWN▪It's World Cup time "” reverie of a soccer fan▪U.S., China rediscover nuclear energy▪A thunderbolt out of the 'blue'>SharePrintEmailWrite a CommentEnter your comments - 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