The mainland and Taiwan can cooperate in the farming sector after joining the World Trade Organization, according to a member of China's top advisory body.
Lin Yifu, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said that after China joined the WTO, a few of its farm products such as soy beans and maize will be affected adversely.
He said, “But on the whole China's WTO entry will be conducive to its agricultural structural adjustment, which requires the improvement of crop strains, the widening of marketing channels and the growth of intermediate agencies.”
Taiwan enjoys an advantage in vegetables, fruit and other areas of the farming sector. “Vegetables and fruit are labor-intensive products and yet Taiwan does not enjoy an advantage in labor,” he said.
Lin noted that after Taiwan opens its farm products to the mainland, the mainland’s labor resources can be combined with Taiwan’s agricultural techniques and marketing network, just as Taiwan's labor-intensive industries were moved to the mainland in the 1980s.
(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2002)
