“We are going to stand with the Taiwanese public and demand that the legislature conducts a thorough review of the ECFA,” Lin said.
The KMT caucus, however, is of the view that the legislature can only vote to accept or reject the agreement as a whole.
Noting the caucuses’ different stances on the issue, Wang said lawmakers needed to find a consensus on how to review the ECFA before deliberations begin because of the lack of a precedent in screening cross-strait agreements.
At a separate setting yesterday, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said he would lead a group of officials that would defend the ECFA.
Wu was reluctant to put a figure on how much the trade deal would boost the economy, saying “much depends on the global economy and an individual country’s diligence.”
“The world is still feeling the aftermath of the global economic tsunami, but the ECFA helps to remove many obstacles, such as the unfair tariff terms, and therefore it increases Taiwan’s competitiveness,” Wu said.
Wu did not specify when he would appear at the legislature, but said he believed a second provisional session would be held in mid-to-late August.
At the same time, amendments to four laws — the Patent Act (專利法), the Customs Import Tariff Act (海關進口稅則), the Plant Variety and Plant Seed Act (植物品種及種苗法) and the Trademark Act (商標法) — will also be reviewed, with the goal of passing the amendments by the end of the year.
When asked if President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would attend a question-and-answer session at the legislature as has been rumored, Wu answered with a categorical “no,” saying the law of the land does not require the president to appear in front of the legislature.
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