Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said yesterday that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had instructed government agencies to enhance communication with middle and low-income-earners and small and medium-sized enterprises concerning the government’s proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.
The government has also resolved to make extra efforts to explain the ECFA to people in central and southern Taiwan, she said.
“[The communication will include] details about ECFA negotiations and explain why [the government] must push the ECFA, including the agreement’s significance and importance for Taiwan,” Lai said. “We will communicate to the public using clear language.”
Lai said Taiwan and China had reached a consensus during the first round of ECFA negotiations last week to complete the signing by June, when the fifth round of cross-strait negotiations are scheduled.
She made the remarks on her way to a closed-door briefing with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and legislators. Lai and Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) were invited to brief Wang and representatives of the legislature’s three caucuses.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus refused to participate in the meeting and called on Wang to form a task force to supervise cross-strait development.
DPP caucus whip Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) said his caucus rejected MAC’s use of an unofficial occasion to talk about ECFA negotiations. The caucus said that significant cross-strait policies should be heard about and overseen by the legislature.
The DPP caucus has accused Ma and his government of denying the legislature’s right to supervise cross-strait policy and negotiations.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) told reporters after the briefing that the government promised to keep the legislature informed about progress on the ECFA negotiations, with five briefings to Wang and caucus officials between this month and June and five reports to joint legislative meetings.
Lin said the government would give details of the ECFA to the legislature for review after the agreement is signed.
Meanwhile, Wang’s plan to invite the KMT and DPP caucuses to talk about the need to set up a task force to oversee cross-strait affairs failed.
“This shows that whoever is in power is afraid of legislative oversight,” Wang said.
Wang said the negotiation session had been postponed until next Wednesday.
He said the KMT caucus had also proposed a similar task force when the DPP was in power, but the plan was rejected by the DPP caucus.
After the DPP caucus called for the task force on Tuesday, the KMT caucus said it might be redundant as committees already have the power to supervise cross-strait affairs.
At a separate setting, the Presidential Office yesterday said it would continue communicating with Wang about the proposal.
Wang said the task force was necessary because non-committee members cannot attend committee meetings when executive branches deliver reports.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦), however, cast doubt on the speaker’s remark about only committee members being able to attend the meeting.
Legislative rules stipulate that non-committee members may only attend committee meetings by invitation.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING AND RICH CHANG
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