What are the objectives of promoting the ECFA?
A8. The government has three main objectives in promoting the signing of the ECFA with the Mainland. First, it wants to promote the ormalization?of cross-strait economic and trade relations. Currently, although both sides are WTO members, there are still many restrictions on economic and trade interaction between them. Second, the government wants to prevent us from becoming arginalized?in the integrated regional economic system. Regional economic integration is an important global trend. According to WTO statistics, as many as 230 free trade agreements (FTAs) had gone into effect as of the end of 2008, by which the signing parties extend tariff exemptions to one another. If we cannot sign FTAs with our main trading partners, we will face the threat of being marginalized, and we will lose our competitiveness in important markets. Because the Mainland is now our most important export destination, signing an agreement with the Mainland will also help us to sign FTAs with other countries,
