In addition to staging a large-scale rally later this month, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday it would also put forth a new referendum proposal, petitioning for a public vote to be held on a controversial cross-strait trade pact once it has gone through a legislative review.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government hopes to ink an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China this month, with both President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) having said that a signed ECFA would be subject to a legislative review before the agreement takes effect.
Sources familiar with the negotiation process said that the government could sign the agreement around the time of the weeklong Straits Forum, to be held from tomorrow to June 25 in China’s Fujian Province. A large number of high-level Chinese officials are expected to attend the event.
Julian Kuo (郭正亮), a member of the DPP task force in charge of responding to ECFA-related issues, said yesterday that if the agreement went through a legislative review, the party would launch a signature drive to petition for a referendum on the ECFA.
The DPP’s latest ECFA referendum proposal will be the third on this issue. Before the Referendum Review Committee last week rejected an ECFA referendum proposed by the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), the DPP late last year had initiated an ECFA referendum, which the Referendum Review Committee also rejected. The committee said the referendum question proposed by the DPP was based on a hypothetical scenario.
Similar proposals raised in the legislature by DPP lawmakers have also been rejected.
Kuo said the new referendum proposal question would first be reviewed by a team of legal professionals to ensure that it could sidestep some of the problems that the review committee cited in the earlier proposals.
As for the planned anti-ECFA rally in Taipei City later this month, DPP officials said it will most likely take place on June 26, pending confirmation by the party’s Central Standing Committee.
That date is likely to be close to when the government is to sign the trade agreement with China, which the DPP says could have a disastrous effects on Taiwan’s middle class and more vulnerable industries because of a flood of cheap goods
Citing polls that show a sharp divide in support for the agreement, the DPP says that an ECFA should first be subject to a public vote before it becomes valid.
That issue, including the rejection of the TSU referendum proposal last week, is expected to be a focus of the upcoming rally.
The theme of the DPP rally is to be: “Opposition against a one-China common market; a public referendum should decide.”
A DPP-sponsored event was held on Saturday in Kaohsiung City in support of a referendum on an ECFA. Reuters reported that a low turnout at the event signaled a “broad but guarded acceptance of the deal by the Taiwanese public,” which the DPP strongly denied.
Kuo said the June 26 rally could draw up to 200,000 people. The party will not issue a mobilization order asking supporters to join until the date is approved by the party’s Standing Committee meeting.
In related news, Hung Tsai-lung (洪財隆), an associate research fellow at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, said on Tuesday at an ECFA forum that once the trade deal is signed, Taiwan must open up 90 percent of its market to China within 10 years.
“But so far, no one has ever seen the plan or schedule of how they have decided to do it,” he said.
The Ma government has seen the short-term interests, but overlooked the long-term development of the country’s industries, he said, adding that as Beijing showed no sign of changing its attitude toward Taiwan, it was wishful thinking that Taiwan could ink free trade agreements with other countries once an ECFA is signed.
Kenneth Lin (林向愷), a professor of economics at National Taiwan University, said although Hong Kong signed a closer economic partnership (CEP) with New Zealand in March, he did not think China would allow Taiwan to do so for political reasons.
“While China has taken back Hong Kong and rules it under the model of ‘one China, two systems,’ the political arrangement for Taiwan still remains in the balance,” he said. “Unless Taiwan agrees to accept such an arrangement, China will never let Taiwan follow in Hong Kong’s footsteps because there is a chance of a change of government in Taiwan in 2012.”
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