Mainland, Taiwan sign agreements on flight safety, taxation

Chinese mainland and Taiwan negotiators on Tuesday inked two agreements concerning cross-Strait flight safety and taxation cooperation, respectively.

The two agreements were signed by the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) President Chen Deming and Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Lin Join-sane during their talks in Fuzhou city.

The civil aviation agreement covered licensing for civil aviation organizations, products and personnel as well as flight standards and certification. The two sides agreed to set up a reporting system and mechanism to coordinate responses to accidents and emergencies.

Based on the agreement, the negotiators discussed cooperation for investigating and handling civil air accidents.

The tax agreement outlined rules for income from cross-Strait economic exchanges. It also covered favorable tax rates for such activities and strategies to avoid double taxation.

The two sides also agreed to establish a system that would avoid discriminatory taxation.

ARATS and SEF are NGOs authorized by the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, respectively, to negotiate cross-Strait issues. Endi