The Legislative Yuan should be represented in negotiations with China on the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), a legislative research report said yesterday.
To ensure that the agreement, which is similar to a free-trade agreement, meets Taiwan＊s national interests and reflects public opinion, the report said, the legislature should be allowed to take part in relevant policy formulation.
The report, authored by the Legislative Yuan＊s Organic Law and Statute Bureau, said that a communication platform should be created between the executive and legislative branches to facilitate discussions on ECFA-related matters.
The signing of an ECFA is controversial. While President Ma Ying-jeou (堜褙朐) and his administration believe it is important to help Taiwan maintain its competitiveness, especially as China plans to sign similar agreements with other countries, opponents fear it could hurt Taiwanese industries by flooding the nation with tariff-free Chinese goods and make Taiwan more economically dependent on China.
As an ECFA is the most important economic issue, and is closely related to the formulation of fiscal, economic and trade policies, the legislature is entitled to participate in policy formulation before ECFA negotiations get underway, the report said.
Since the proposed ECFA agreement covers short, medium and long-term market opening measures, negotiations will take time to complete, the report said. It added that the executive and legislative branches should therefore forge a dialogue platform and work in concert to pursue the best possible deal for the country and its people at they negotiate the accord with China.
Given the broad coverage and complexity of the proposed agreement, the report suggested that the Executive Yuan should inform the legislature of any progress or decisions in the ECFA＊s planning and consultative stages.
Protecting Taiwan＊s overall interests should be the top priority in ECFA negotiations, the report said, adding that sustainable industrial development and trade remedies should be prioritized in negotiations.
The report also said it is important that the ECFA integrates a comprehensive food safety inspection and compensation 〝mechanism. Such a mechanism would be aimed at protecting Taiwanese consumers in case of problems involving Chinese food imports.
Although Taiwan and China signed a food-safety agreement following China＊s tainted milk scandal last year, the accord does not contain any concrete measures regarding compensation, the report said.
The report said that existing laws and statutes have not fleshed out a clear and effective mechanism for the legislature to oversee the negotiations and signing of cross-strait agreements.
To address such a deficiency, the legislative report said that either special legislation should be enacted or the existing Act Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (欳颮嬣硠弮沭蟘秷) should be revised to that effect.
Meanwhile, while Taipei and Beijing have agreed to hold the next round of high-level cross-strait talks in Taiwan by the end of the year, the two sides have not finalized the details, including the time and place.
A former senior official at the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said that bilateral negotiations were suspended in the wake of Typhoon Morakot and the sides have not engaged in preparatory negotiations on the planned meeting between Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (阭黹俅) and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (蠊磩釱).
The official said both sides agreed to hold the Chiang-Chen meeting by the end of the year, but it was too early to tell whether it would happen next month as many media outlets had speculated.
Progress has been made, however, in talks about the topics of the upcoming meeting, he said. The two sides will address fishing industry cooperation, quality checks for agricultural products, cross-strait cooperation in inspection and certification and the prevention of double taxation.
While Chen yesterday said that the upcoming high-level talks would be held as soon as both sides are ready, former MAC secretary-general Jan Jyh-horng (轙礞拹) dismissed it as ※rubbish,§ saying what it meant was neither side was ready.
Chen said both sides have been in contact concerning the negotiations on an ECFA and that talks will happen if the Chiang-Chen meeting is fully prepared.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING
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