Taiwan and China signed the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement in Shanghai in 2013. It is a follow-up agreement to the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) that the two sides signed in 2010. The other agreements that are in negotiation but remain to be signed are agreements on trade in goods, investment protection, and dispute settlement.
Under the agreement, Taiwan will open 64 industries to Chinese investment, while China will open 80 industries to investment from Taiwan. Taiwan's government says the agreement will help the country further liberalize its economy and join in regional economic integration. It also says that the pact will be a stepping stone for Taiwanese businesses to tap into the vast Chinese market.
However, despite the government's attempts to persuade the public of the necessity of the agreement, the pact has yet to be approved by the legislature. Critics of the agreement say that negotiations were not transparent and that the public had not been consulted over the agreement. Several scholars have also pointed out that the agreement is not symmetrical. They say for example that Taiwan does not impose restrictions on Chinese companies providing cross-border services, but Taiwanese e-commerce businesses will have to set up joint ventures in China's Fujian Province. The scholars have also said that opening up certain industries, such as communications to China, may compromise Taiwan's security, because China has not given up the possibility of using force to reunify Taiwan with the Mainland.
In mid-March, amid scuffles in the legislature, a ruling Kuomintang lawmaker announced that an initial review of the trade in services agreement was finished. This went against a cross-party understanding that the pact must be reviewed clause-by-clause. The next day, protestors broke through security barriers and took over the legislative chamber to stop a scheduled second reading of the agreement. As of Saturday, the standoff continues.