Sat, Jul 03, 2010 page8

• EDITORIAL: No more 3D glasses, Mr President

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  President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) needs to get his eyes checked. He’s obviously been wearing a pair of Avatar 3D glasses for too long, since he acts as if he can reach out and touch the projected benefits of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).

  It’s as if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its supporters took all the seats for Imax’s showing of “ECFA in 3D” and the rest of us had to make to do with the regular 2D format.

  Reality does have a way of intruding on celluloid fairy tales and Ma’s seemingly endless supply of platitudes cannot bridge the gap between his promises of quick economic relief, regional access and more free-trade agreements and the cold hard truth — Taiwan has been sold out.

  This was clearly evident in Ma’s comments this week, when he dismissed the idea of the legislature conducting a thorough review of the ECFA by comparing it to the passage of the WTO accord.

  “When we joined the WTO in 2002, the legislature discussed the general treaty, rather than reviewing every clause. You can either approve or oppose the whole treaty, but [you] should not make changes to the clauses. It would set a very bad example,” Ma said on Wednesday at KMT headquarters, in his capacity as KMT chairman.

  What Ma is clearly hoping is that the public will overlook the fact that he’s comparing apples and oranges.

  Taiwan applied to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, the WTO’s predecessor) on Jan. 1, 1990, as the separate customs territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. In September 1992, GATT’s Council of Representatives agreed to establish a working party to examine Taiwan’s accession bid. The Ministry of Economic Affairs then conducted hundreds of negotiations to conclude bilateral treaties with 26 key WTO members by 1999.

  The only holdout at that time was, of course, China, so Taiwan had to wait two more years for Beijing to wrap up all of its negotiations before Taiwan’s paperwork was finally approved in November 2001.

  It took 11 long years from the time Taiwan formally applied to join the GATT to secure entry. There was a decade filled with debates and reviews — about what Taiwan was being asked to give up, what laws needed to be changed and about programs to help sectors of the economy that would be hurt by accession. All throughout, the public was kept informed of what the government was doing and was able to voice its support or opposition to the government’s plans.

  After 11 years, the legislature didn’t need to review the treaty clause by clause. Everyone knew what it contained. The WTO deal was all about transparency.

  Contrast that with the ECFA negotiations. Most people are as much in the dark about what is involved and what the costs will be as they were before the deal was signed in Chongqing.

  Ma says legislative quibbling over the details of the ECFA would set a bad example. Well, his government has already done that by allowing two quasi-official organizations to hammer out a deal. Now he seeks to compound the error, but on a far greater scale.

  To revert to our cinematic theme, Ma and his scriptwriters have been busy crafting a new Mission Impossible, but already it looks just as implausible as those Tom Cruise movies. The only thing you can be sure of is that there will be plenty of explosions before the end.

  You’ll leave the theater with the feeling that you’ve been suckered.
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