Hu meets Wu on cross-Straits trade pact

Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said on Monday he hopes that the newly signed cross-Straits trade pact will take effect as soon as possible to bring out practical benefits for people of both sides.

Hu Jintao(R), General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, meets with Kuomintang (KMT) Party honorary chairman Wu Poh-hsiung in Beijing, capital of China, July 12, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

Hu met Wu Poh-hsiung, honorary chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party, Monday afternoon in Beijing. It is the third meeting between top leaders of the CPC and KMT since 2008, when the KMT won ruling power in Taiwan.

Hu said the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) has laid a solid foundation for peaceful development of cross-Straits relations and signaled a new era for bilateral economic co-operation.

Wu said he brought a sincere greeting from Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou, also chairman of KMT.

He said he believed Taiwan will finish the legal examination for ECFA before August, and put it into practice as soon as possible.

The ECFA, a landmark trade pact signed between Chinese mainland and Taiwan in June 29, is a wide-ranging agreement that will reduce tariffs on hundreds of petrochemical, textile and other items, and it opens service sectors such as banking to cross-Straits investment, binding the two economies even closer.

The agreement must be approved by Taiwan's "parliament", which has convened a special summer session to review it. But the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been trying to block it from passing, calling it a deal that will make Taiwan economy more dependent on the mainland and strengthen Beijing's control over the island.