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Thus, partial sacrifice and trade-offs had to be made in these grouped negotiation process to reach an agreement. Taiwan originally stood firm, not opening the agriculture market in order to protect its local farmers. However, in its recent discussion on opening RMB operations to Taiwanese financial institutions, the negotiator and scholars of Taiwan’s negotiating team indicated the possibilities of opening agriculture partly in reaction to the strong call from the PRC (Lin 2009). The PRC also faced trade-offs. With the strong lobbying power of national-owned enterprises and certain protective industries, the PRC surrendered some of the other items in the negotiation to be able to continue (Want Daily, 2012). The details of the trade-off can be further studied after the release of the new negotiation results. During the ECFA negotiations, the bargaining power gradually shifted from Taiwan to PRC, corresponding to the formula-detail theory suggesting that a negotiation should not only react to past moves from the other party, but also the “initiation for forward-oriented moves” (Zartman, 1977) that can guide the other party to future preferred targets. With four times greater reduced total tariff amount than Taiwan, the PRC had revealed sufficient sincerity and willingness to cooperate in the first Early Harvest Program. In reaction to that, Taiwanese negotiators, bearing the pressure of the Pan-green coalition, received Ma’s strong political support to finalize the ECFA negotiation in two years. Taiwan’s negotiators therefore understood that to be able to achieve the “preferred target” (Zartman, 1977) of both sides, certain trade-offs, like the low-value added industries (automobile parts), needed to be made. Considering competition from ASEAN and Asia region, the ECFA came at a right time for negotiation to include Taiwan in the regional economic integration trend. After several years of preparation, the China-ASEAN FTA went into effect on January 1, 2010, which partly explained the eagerness of Taiwan to promote ECFA with the PRC. Without this agreement, Taiwan’s business and trade would have lost its advantage in the Mainland’s market. (G. Wang 2011, 508) Currently, the PRC has 15 FTA agreements with 28 economies. Meanwhile, the PRC has completed regional trade agreements with India and South Korea and is exploring the possibility of establishing a Japan-ROK Free Trade Area (China FTA Network 2012). Other East Asian states had aspired to strengthen regional economic ties. In August 2006, South Korea signed an FTA with ASEAN, Japan completed its Comprehensive Economic Partnership with ASEAN in April 2008, and India formed a Trade in Goods Agreement in 2009 (G. Wang 2011, 508). From Taiwan’s perspective, it did not sign any FTA or similar form of agreement with ASEAN, which harms Taiwan products’ competitiveness and decreases the country’s inward and outward trade and investment. During 2004 and 2006, the
ASIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS VOL. 5. NO. 2