Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng said Tuesday that he was glad to see that the government has insisted on safeguarding Taiwan's sovereignty and the people's welfare by not signing a cross-strait tax agreement before a dispute over tax jurisdictions was resolved. The double taxation avoidance agreement was one of four pacts expected to be signed between the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and its Chinese counterpart the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) during negotiations being held this week in Taichung, central Taiwan. But representatives of the two parties decided at a preparatory meeting Monday afternoon that the proposed tax agreement needed to be shelved until lingering 'technical issues' were dealt with at a later date. Wang disclosed that he was told by Premier Wu Den-yih last week that the proposed agreement might not be concluded at this week's meeting. According to Wang, Wu said that no consensus on tax rates and how tax jurisidictions would be defined had been reached. Acknowledging that both sides have their respective positions, Wang said that it is important to comply with international practice. Since Taiwan's position is more in line with international practice, 'of course, we should stand our ground,' said Wang. Meanwhile, legislators of both the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) voiced their support for putting off the signing of such an agreement, voicing concerns about problems related to the different taxation systems and protection of personal information. 