Six cooperation agreements complement each other to promote the development of traditional Chinese medicine across the Straits

The 2010 Cross Strait Symposium on the development and cooperation of traditional Chinese medicine has achieved positive results The resources and scientific research advantages of traditional Chinese medicine in mainland China and Taiwan's rich experience in international marketing of traditional Chinese medicine are just complementary As an important supporting activity of the second cross strait forum, the 2010 cross strait Seminar on the development and cooperation of traditional Chinese medicine was held in Xiamen from June 20 to 21 The main principals from the competent departments of health and traditional Chinese medicine of both sides, relevant industry associations, experts and scholars, and relevant people in the industry of traditional Chinese Medicine conducted in-depth discussions on the development of scientific research and industry of traditional Chinese medicine At the meeting, relevant units on both sides of the Straits jointly signed six cooperation agreements on traditional Chinese medicine, including the research and development of new traditional Chinese medicine, the development of digital auxiliary diagnosis and treatment system, and the docking of clinical diagnosis technology projects of traditional Chinese medicine Then on the 29th of the same month, Chen Yunlin, chairman of Cross Strait Relations Association, and Jiang Bingkun, chairman of Taiwan Strait Exchange Foundation of China, formally signed the Cross Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (hereinafter referred to as ECFA) in Chongqing to reduce import and export tariffs on some industrial products, while some high-purity plant extracts are the only Chinese herbal products that are lucky to be included in the early harvest list of ECFA 。 In the ECFA agreement Annex 1: list of early harvest products in the trade of goods and arrangements for tax reduction, including the arrangement for tax reduction of Customs serial number 29329900 (other heterocyclic compounds with only oxygen heteroatom): the import tax rate is adjusted to 2.5% from July 1 this year, and zero from July 1, 2011 The high-purity plant extracts in the mainland are exported under this customs code However, most of the plant extract products are not included in the list of products harvested in the early stage of ECFA goods trade The seminar on the development and cooperation of traditional Chinese medicine in Taiwan was founded in 2006 It has been highly valued by the State Administration of traditional Chinese medicine and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council The industry of traditional Chinese medicine across the Taiwan Straits has actively participated in it It has been held in Xiamen for four consecutive times and has become an important platform for cross strait exchanges and cooperation At the forum, Liao Guodong, member of Taiwan's Legislative Council and Huang linhuang, director of the traditional Chinese Medicine Committee of the health department of the executive yuan of Taiwan, introduced the current situation of Taiwan's traditional Chinese medicine and discussed the future direction of cross-strait cooperation in traditional Chinese medicine At present, there are 1985 TCM medical institutions in Taiwan, including 109 TCM hospitals, 1803 TCM clinics, 2833 registered practitioners of TCM, 9321 TCM rooms, 39760 registered traders and practitioners of TCM In 2009, the output value of traditional Chinese medicine in Taiwan was about NT $5.8 billion, of which traditional Chinese medicine accounted for 28.2%, western medicine accounted for 0.3%, and concentrated Chinese medicine accounted for 71.5% Taiwan authorities have been promoting the full implementation of GMP in traditional Chinese medicine plants At present, 118 have passed the acceptance Most of the traditional Chinese medicine factories in Taiwan are small and medium-sized enterprises with a capital of more than NT $50 million Among them, the main Chinese patent medicine manufacturers are Shun Tiantang, Sheng Chang, Ke Da, Zhuang Songrong and Hong Kong Xianglan, which account for about 75% of the sales of the Chinese herbal medicine market in Taiwan There are few resources of traditional Chinese medicine, which relies heavily on the mainland The small scale of Chinese patent medicine industry makes it difficult to develop new Chinese patent medicine, which is the biggest problem in the development of Taiwan's traditional Chinese medicine industry At the same time, Taiwan has rich experience in international marketing and has accumulated more experience in developing international market Therefore, the cross-strait traditional Chinese medicine industry has strong complementarity and broad prospects for cooperation The prospect of cross-strait trade in traditional Chinese medicine is broad, and Taiwan's dependence on mainland Chinese medicine is very high Due to the lack of Chinese herbal resources in the island, Taiwan mainly imports Chinese herbal medicines, of which 70% - 80% are from mainland China In 2008, Taiwan imported NT $2.42 billion of traditional Chinese medicine materials, including NT $1.74 billion from the mainland Taiwan's people have a high degree of identification with traditional Chinese medicine About 66% of people often use traditional Chinese medicine According to the survey of Taiwan Pharmaceutical Industry Association, the ten most commonly used Chinese herbal medicines in Taiwan are angelica, rehmannia, liquorice, Ligusticum chuanxiong, Poria cocos, peony, astragalus, Atractylodes macrocephala, ginseng and Pinellia ternata At present, Taiwan people are most worried about heavy metals, pesticide residues, microbial excess, illegal advertising and labeling issues, which are the main factors affecting the cross-strait trade of Chinese herbal medicines Huang linhuang, director of the Chinese Medicine Committee of the health department of the executive yuan of Taiwan, pointed out: "there are great differences in Pharmacopoeia specifications, inspection standards and management between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, and there is a lack of exchange channels for relevant experience and technology; at present, Taiwan's import of Chinese medicine has not yet established a comprehensive border inspection mechanism, and there is no window and communication between the two sides for sampling unqualified drugs Coordination mechanism " In order to avoid the quality disputes arising from the import and export of Chinese herbal medicines across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan is actively planning and unifying the inspection standards with the mainland Quality Supervision Bureau and the Ministry of health as soon as possible That is to say, "in order to implement the quality management of the source of traditional Chinese medicine, the two sides can exchange inspection data and inform each other of unsafe information, strengthen the packaging and labeling standards of products, strengthen the inspection of product import and export through the cooperation between the two sides of the two sides, strengthen the safety management from the source of the origin, and then strengthen the verification of the authenticity of certification documents and establish an emergency handling mechanism." The establishment of cross-strait cooperation mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine should achieve the following four goals: first, to reduce technical barriers to trade in standard testing and certification; second, to strengthen the transparency and access of information, and to establish channels for real-time communication, notification, verification and consultation; third, to establish dispute coordination and settlement mechanism; fourth, to implement source management, prevent unsafe products from entering the market, and protect consumers Safety In addition to the establishment of trade dispute settlement mechanism, the two sides can also carry out research cooperation platforms in various fields such as Chinese herbal medicine planting planning, introduction and cultivation, storage and optimization, organization and cultivation, and make use of each other's scientific and technological advantages to effectively cultivate new varieties, protect medicinal wild plant resources, and realize the sustainable use of Chinese herbal medicine resources The establishment of cross-strait cooperation mechanism and platform will certainly promote the development of cross-strait trade in traditional Chinese medicine, which is conducive to giving full play to their respective advantages, promoting the internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine, and jointly expanding the scale of traditional Chinese medicine industry Compared with the continuous prosperity of the cross-strait trade in traditional Chinese medicine, the development of traditional Chinese medicine is still a long way to go In 2009, the mainland's export of Chinese patent medicines to Taiwan was only US $570000, and Taiwan was only ranked 28th in the mainland's export market of Chinese patent medicines; while the mainland was only the 9th largest market in Taiwan's export of Chinese patent medicines, and both sides were not the main export markets in each other's trade of Chinese patent medicines The cold trade of Chinese patent medicine between the two sides of the Straits is caused by many factors First of all, the characteristics of Chinese patent medicines on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are different There are many kinds of Chinese patent medicines on the mainland, with both traditional and modern dosage forms The market is broad The traditional Chinese medicine industry accounts for about 1 / 4 of the whole pharmaceutical industry In 2009, the output value of Chinese patent medicines in the mainland exceeded 250 billion yuan, while that in Taiwan was only 1.2 billion yuan, and the dosage forms were mainly concentrated preparations, with great differences In addition, in the ECFA agreement just signed, petrochemical middle and upper reaches, textile, machinery, automobile and its parts, some aquatic products and other products are included in the list of early harvest (tax reduction in advance), and the tax is reduced to zero within three years In order to protect the Chinese herbal medicine industry in Taiwan, Taiwan defines Chinese herbal medicine as a sensitive industry that is vulnerable to impact, and strives to keep the tax rate unchanged for 10 years The convenient green light of cross-strait Chinese patent medicine trade has not been opened From the perspective of policy, the prosperity of cross-strait Chinese patent medicine trade still needs time.