Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday that he and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) both realized that the obstacle blocking a US-Taiwan free trade agreement (FTA) was China's opposition.
Wang made the comments after meeting with Ma for one hour yesterday.
Ma visited Wang at his residence to share his experiences from a trip to the US last month.
"[Ma] knows that it would be very difficult for Taiwan to achieve a FTA with the US, and I told him that it's really not easy," Wang said.
"[Taiwan] has met the US' demands on issues related to intellectual property rights [IPR] enforcement, agricultural imports [especially rice], telecommunications services and pharmaceuticals," he said.
"I told [Ma] that some US congressmen and senators have told me that the hurdle is the other side of the [Taiwan] Strait, and [Ma] agreed with me," Wang said.
As for the KMT's version of an arms procurement bill, Ma said "now is not the proper time for the KMT to present a version [of the bill]."
Ma had initially planned to release it early last month, but the KMT's legislative caucus rejected the proposal.
"Given that the president ceased the function of the National Unification Council, bringing out the KMT's version of the arms bill would send the wrong message -- that KMT endorsed the president's announcement on the council -- to the president," Ma said.
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