Abstract

The Legislative Yuan, in an extraordinary session, has passed a set of rules governing the establishment of free trade harbor zones. However, without a direct transportation link between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the setup of the harbor zones is nothing but an empty talk.

The world ranking of Kaohsiung Harbor, Taiwan's largest commercial port has already dropped from No. 3 to No. 5 in the last three years. It is highly likely that it may be outstripped this year by Shenzhen Harbor in southern China.

Because there exists of no cross-Strait link, many international shipping companies have decreased the number of calls by their vessels at Kaohsiung Harbor.

While Mainland China's import and export trade totaled more than US$620 billion last year and that of Taiwan stood at US$240 billion during the same period, it's only natural that under such circumstances commercial shipping liners would rather pick mainland harbors as their first choice.

Except for a rare few, however, there are almost no deepwater ports along China's southern coast. On the other hand, Kaohsiung is an excellent port, with its water as deep as 16 meters. It would serve as an ideal transshipment post for goods coming out of harbors in southern China.

Pushan Harbor of South Korea is a good example. It surpassed Kaohsiung Harbor in world ranking in 2000 because of its ability to attract goods from northern China.

Taiwan set up an offshore shipping center in 1996 to allow foreign lag-of-convenience vessels to ply between Xiamen, Fuchow and Kaoshiung, which brought in 600,000 containers a year for transshipment. The volume has not increased because these ships cannot clear the customs and enter into Taiwan , and Beijing, on the other hand, is unwilling to open up other harbors for transshipment.

Should Taiwan government authorities have reservations on opening up a direct link immediately, there are at least two things they must and can do at the moment:

1. According to the resolution on setting up offshore shipping centers, adopted at the government-sponsored Economic Development Conference held in 2001, the agencies concerned have the authority to allow goods to enter through Kaohsiung as well as all other ports in Taiwan and to carry goods both to and from Taiwan, but the government stopped short of fulfilling the resolution in its entirety. For instance, they only allow goods to enter into certain designated spots in Taiwan and continue to disallow these vessels to carry Taiwan products to the mainland. In other words, the offshore shipping center functions only partially.
2. In a National Security Council meeting held on May 1 this year, President Chen Shui-bian called for a further deregulation of shipping operations to strengthen Taiwan's competitiveness. The agencies concerned should do something concrete, and soon, to respond to the President's proclamation.

Recent events that took place in the cross-Strait relations, like the operation of the offshore shipping centers, the implementation of "small scale” three links (the other two being the commercial and postal links), and the recent charter flights to bring Taiwan businessmen home for the lunar New Year holidays, have all proved that no security risks and no compromise on dignity are incurred in the process.

The Democratic Progressive government is used to profess its eagerness to strive for a better economy. Why doesn't it try to work a little bit harder to save Kaohsiung Harbor, whose rise and decline could be an important key to the revitalization of Taiwan's economy?

.....the full text in chinese