With the ECFA formally taking effect Sunday, Taiwan and China will each designate liaison officers to form a committee in which the two sides will consult with each other to facilitate the implementation of the landmark pact concluded in June. Taiwan and China will be able to develop government-to-government links under the ECFA and this proposed committee will facilitate the resolution of differences and other contentious problems existing between the two sides, according to Lai Shin-yuan, chairwoman of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council. However, Beijing has advocated that the committee should be operated under the framework of the already existing Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) on the Taipei side and the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) , and that the committee 'should have distinctive characteristics of the two sides,' -- meaning that China is vast and Taiwan is small, so China should 'yield benefits' to Taiwan while Taiwan should bear in mind the reality of the cross-strait situation. The establishment of the committee has apparently poked a cross-strait political nerve and the two sides will unavoidably have to endure political labor before formally giving birth to the committee. The two sides should discard their political mentalities and push through the ECFA and its technical arrangements, which are vital to the private sectors of both, in a pragmatic and professional manner. 