Ecfa

Journal of International Economic Law 14(1), 121–156 doi:10.1093/jiel/jgr009.

THE CHINA–TAIWAN ECFA, GEOPOLITICAL DIMENSIONS AND WTO LAW Pasha L. Hsieh*

ABSTRACT

This article examines legal and geopolitical aspects of the China-Taiwan Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA). It begins by analyzing areas in which the two governments’ measures contravene rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In particular, it provides the first detailed examination of the significant implications emerging from the ECFA for cross-straits trade relations and East Asian regionalism. The article also explains how the ECFA was modeled on free trade agreements (FTAs) of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and assesses the impact of the ECFA’s early harvest program. Finally, the article discusses the ECFA’s consistency with WTO requirements for an interim FTA agreement and potential legal issues arising from the dispute settlement mechanism. In this respect, the article presents a valuable case study of an FTA.

I. INTRODUCTION

On June 29, 2010, China and Taiwan signed a landmark trade pact, known as the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), in the Southwest Chinese city of Chongqing.1 The ECFA marks the most important agreement between these two political rivals since the end of the

* Assistant Professor of Law, Singapore Management University School of Law. J.D., LL.M., University of Pennsylvania Law School; LL.B., National Chengchi University, Taiwan. E-mail: pashahsieh@smu.edu.sg. This article benefits from the generous support provided by the Lee Foundation. I wish to thank Professors Bryan Mercurio, Locknie Hsu, Chun-i Chen, Zhaojie Li, Lukasz Gruszczynski, Sungjoon Cho, David Morgan, Henry Gao, Eliza Mik, Julia O’Brien, Christine Y. Chang, participants at the Cross-Straits International Law Forum at Tsinghua Law School, and officials of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council and Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic...