The proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China would pave the way for eventual unification, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators said yesterday, adding that the agreement would be “more political than economic.”
The comments followed Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s (溫家寶) speech to the National People’s Congress on Sunday, in which he attempted to calm fears that the controversial pact would flood Taiwan with cheap Chinese imports and cost thousands of farmers and workers their jobs.
Wen said China would “let the people of Taiwan benefit” from tariff concessions and early harvest programs, adding that “relevant arrangements” in the trade pact would help reassure Taiwanese farmers.
However, DPP lawmakers questioned Wen’s sincerity and said it was unlikely that Taiwan would be able to reap any benefits from the trade pact, either economically or politically.
DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德) called Wen’s comments lies.
“If one of the main principles of the trade pact is for both parties to be treated as equals, how does saying this even make sense?” he said.
“This shows that his comments are basically a smokescreen for [China’s] unification goal,” Lai said.
“Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang [施顏祥] has been more honest, saying that if China gives Taiwan benefits including tariff concessions, it would only be a matter of time before it asks for the same in return,” DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said.
Government officials maintain that signing the pact would open the way for Taiwan to sign free-trade agreements (FTAs) with other countries and increase the nation’s economic competitiveness.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said on Sunday that Taiwan risked becoming an “international orphan,” adding that the absence of FTAs with major economies was contributing to the nation’s economic isolation.
However, Lai said the main reason the nation did not manage to sign FTAs with other major economies was China, which has repeatedly blocked other countries from signing agreements with Taiwan.
“Who is causing Taiwan’s current problems in international relations?” Lai asked. “It is all the result of China’s actions. What Beijing is doing is destroying Taiwan’s international space and pushing it [to accept] the ECFA proposal.”
Meanwhile, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus praised Wen, saying his remarks showed that China “completely” understood the feelings of Taiwanese farmers.
KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) told a press conference at the legislature that the government promised not to open the local market to more Chinese produce if an ECFA was inked.
Lin said the KMT caucus would carry out its gatekeeping duties once the ECFA was signed, adding that Taiwan could lose its competitive edge if it failed to sign the pact.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
Also See: EDITORIAL : ECFA requires more than ‘belief’
Also See: Banks eye preferential status in China
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS