The central government hopes that the relevant trade organizations across the Taiwan Straits will hold talks to work out ways shortly to avoid double taxation on Taiwanese businessmen, a mainland spokesman said on Tuesday.

"In order to safeguard the interests of Taiwanese businessmen, we hope that cross-Straits trade organizations can exchange views and reach consensus as soon as possible, in a bid to resolve the issue of double taxation," said Li Weiyi, the spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

During the talks between Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and James Soong, chairman of the People First Party (PFP) in Taiwan, in May last year, an agreement was reached that the two parties would promote cross-Straits negotiations on how to avoid double taxation on Taiwanese business people.

Source: Xinhua