President Ma Ying-jeou said Thursday that the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) that his administration is preparing to sign with China will be a purely economic pact involving no political issues. 'There will be no wordings such as `one China, ' `one country, two systems, ' or `peaceful reunification, ' during negotiations on the signing of the trade pact, ' Ma said during a brief meeting at the Presidential Office with a group of Taiwanese business and industrial leaders headed by Chen Wu-hsiung, chairman of the Taipei-based Chinese National Federation of Industries. Ma said the signing of a trade pact like ECFA with China is vitally important for Taiwan, pointing out that it is unreasonable for two trade entities whose two-way trade tops US$130 billion per year to have no trade mechanisms governing tariff regimes and trade exchanges. 'The signing of an ECFA with China is imperative for Taiwan and a must-do to prevent Taiwan from being marginalized when new economic blocs in Southeast Asia take shape,' he stressed. An ECFA is vital to Taiwan's economic development and negotiations on the issue are urgently needed for Taiwan, because China has entered free trade framework agreements with 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) , a pact that is expected to come into effect Jan. 1, 2010, Ma noted. The agreement, known as ASEAN Plus One, will have a tremendous impact on Taiwan and might cripple the country's trade-dependent economy, particularly the petrochemical processing, machinery, auto parts and textile manufacturing sectors, Ma said. He pointed out, however, that all agreements involve give and take. 'If we take advantage of it, we must give something in return,' he noted. The administration must work out a set of strategies to cope with scenarios that could see China asking Taiwan to open its doors to certain products from China or to lower import tariffs or even exempt duty altogether on certain products, he said. During the framework agreement negotiations, which could take years, it is hoped that Taiwanese industries expected to be hurt the most by the ASEAN Plus One and ASEAN Plus Three (China, Japan and South Korea) processes will be included on the agenda for 'early harvest' negotiations to minimize the impact on them, he continued. Meanwhile, he added, Taiwan could also seek other measures under the World Trade Organization (WTO) framework, including a relief policy and quota system, to reduce the adverse impact on its domestic industrial sectors because of the ECFA signing. These measures might help some domestic industries, such as the towel manufacturing and ceramic processing industries, to ride out the difficulties during the transitional period, he said. 'The general orientation of this effort is correct, ' he went on, even if some Taiwanese industrial sectors will unavoidably suffer setbacks in the first several years of the implementation of the ECFA, just as some industries experienced when Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization seven years ago. 