Amid heated debate and verbal disputes, the four agreements signed by Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) last month passed the Legislative Yuan’s joint committee review yesterday.
During the meeting, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers questioned the legality of some of the clauses contained in the four agreements, which deal with direct cargo links, direct daily passenger transport links, direct mail delivery services and a joint food safety monitoring mechanism.
One of the disputes was over the issue of exemptions from income and business taxes for marine transport companies on revenues from cross-strait cargo services.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Hsin-yuan (賴幸媛) and Vice Chairman Fu Don-cheng (傅棟成) insisted that the exemptions were legal, but DPP lawmakers challenged that view.
“Any tax breaks — including those for the automobile industry recently proposed by the government — require a revision of the tax laws,” DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said during a question-and-answer session of a joint meeting of the Internal Administration Committee and the Transportation, Health, Environment and Labor Committee.
“Since when did the SEF become the supreme government agency that can invalidate laws just by signing agreements?” she said.
Fu argued that the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) states that special treatment may be applied to “taxations, such as tariffs.”
DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) disagreed.
“This is not how you should interpret the statute,” Chiu said, with other DPP legislators agreeing.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) then accused the DPP of technically attempting to block the agreements.
The situation worsened when KMT legislators Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) and Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) also expressed opposition to the business tax exemption.
The committee ended up passing the direct cross-strait marine transport agreement conditionally, after promising to launch a further law revision process.
Despite questions raised by the DPP about some of the clauses in the four agreements, the agreements were all eventually passed at the meeting where the KMT held a majority.
The agreements will be sent to the legislature’s General Assembly for approval today.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
RSS