With China and South Korea announcing the completion of free-trade agreement negotiations earlier this month, Taiwan faces even greater pressure to maintain the competitiveness of its trade. The government is again urging the legislature to pass a bill on an oversight mechanism for cross-strait agreements and to approve the cross-strait agreements on trade in services and goods.
However, all it has done is talk without taking any action to achieve this. Perhaps it is considering dealing first with the issue of establishing free economic pilot zones, which it can do unilaterally.
Taiwan is not the first country to attempt to use free economic zones to attract foreign investment. Examples can be found in South Korea and Japan — some of which were successful while others were not. Taiwan has been planning such zones for years, but the legislature is still reviewing the plan. It is clear that the nation has failed to keep up with global economic and trade development trends or the speed of regional business integration.
The draft special act governing the proposed free economic pilot zones is under review by the legislature’s Economics Committee, and confrontation between the pan-blue and pan-green camps seems inevitable. People from all sides are now suggesting that the controversy over the bill must come to an end and that it is time to come to a decision.
Perhaps the government should pay attention to recommendations that it exclude some of the more controversial sectors, such as international healthcare services and value-added agriculture, and pass less controversial industries. If it worked hard to promote the success of the free economic zones, other businesses might ask to be included. At that time, the special act could be amended to add other categories and public demand would stop the opposition from blocking their inclusion.
If the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government believes that the draft bill is complete and beneficial to the nation, it should ignore the opposition’s obstruction and take resolute action to pass the special act using its legislative majority.
It could then hold up its achievements in response to public scrutiny and at the same time deliver on its campaign promise of “total government, total responsibility.”
It should not pass responsibility for the delays to the opposition while doing nothing itself — the public is smart enough to see through that.
Another option is for the Legislative Yuan to return the draft bill to the Cabinet for revision, as many groups have suggested. Following the government’s inept handling of the recent adulterated cooking oil scandal, many believe that once the special act is passed, substandard raw materials would be able to enter the nation freely and unscrupulous manufacturers would seize the chance to do as they pleased.
If these manufacturers were to label their substandard products as “MIT” — Made in Taiwan — and sell them across the globe, they would hurt consumers both at home and abroad, and Taiwanese products would be banned internationally.
Passing the special act would also indirectly lift the ban on imports of 830 types of Chinese agricultural products, which would be a significant blow to the domestic agricultural industry. These fears are reasonable. How to provide substantial assistance to farmers, avoid endangering MIT products and promote value-added agriculture are key issues crucial to the development of the nation’s agricultural sector. The authorities should have prepared a full suite of complementary measures a long time ago and they should have explained these to the public and communicated with civic groups to gain their support.
Unfortunately, government agencies have been unwilling to face up to public scrutiny and have repeatedly avoided these questions. The deadlock is getting increasingly difficult to resolve, and this is not in the nation’s best interests.
The government must act quickly to address the problem. If civic groups force the draft bill to be dropped from the agenda or returned to the Cabinet, would this have a positive or negative impact on the nation’s economic development and standard of living? This is an issue that all Taiwanese must give some serious thought.
The establishment of free economic zones is not a zero-sum game, and both sides need the wisdom to compromise.
When it comes to the free economic pilot zone act, which is instrumental to economic development, the government should learn from past experience and stop ignoring public opinion or underestimating public anger. It should promptly make the right decision and take action aimed at winning back the public’s hearts and minds.
If the problem remains unresolved, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration might collapse. Ma should display the determination becoming of a national leader.
Du Yu is chief executive officer of the Chen-Li Task Force for Agricultural Reform.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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