Thu, Jul 08, 2010 page3

• DPP, KMT at loggerheads over review

  PROCEDURE DISPUTE The KMT wants legislators to vote on the ECFA in its entirety, accepting or rejecting all of it, while the DPP wants to review the deal article by article

  • By Flora Wang and Vincent Y. Chao
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  The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucuses were at odds yesterday over how the newly signed cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) would undergo review.

  The legislature was scheduled to hold a session this morning to deliberate and finalize the review procedure for the ECFA.

  The DPP caucus said the ECFA should be screened clause by clause, but the KMT caucus said the legislature did not have the power to unilaterally alter the agreement and could only endorse or reject it in its entirety.

  Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) on Wednesday proposed a “reconciling motion,” saying that the ECFA could be referred to committee review, with legislators deliberating over the pact article by article during review, but unable to revise the content. The legislature could then vote on the agreement as a package, Wang said.

  KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) yesterday said his caucus’ stance on the issue remained unchanged, adding that it intended to support a speedy review of the deal.

  “No matter how the legislature is going to review the deal, there is only one principle — that is, to complete the review as soon as possible,” Lin said.

  DPP lawmakers, meanwhile, rebuffied Wang’s calls for a compromise.

  DPP caucus whip Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) said Wang’s plan was unacceptable, adding that it amounted to a fake review as lawmakers would still be unable to ask the government to alter the text of individual clauses.

  “The ECFA negotiations were conducted secretly and without legislative oversight. It would be an affront to the Constitution and legislative authority if the trade pact were passed in a single package,” DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday after meeting with members of the DPP caucus in the legislature in an attempt to hammer out the strategy that DPP lawmakers would use in the upcoming provisional session.

  Prior to entering the meeting, Tsai told reporters she did not believe the ECFA could be called a treaty according to government precedent, a position that DPP lawmakers would continue to maintain.

  “As a result, when we are dealing with the ECFA, the DPP will not back down from our position ... There is nothing that says that the ECFA has to be voted on as a package,” she said.

  According to accounts relayed by DPP lawmakers, Tsai said during the meeting that the DPP would live up to promises made to the public that it would engage in a substantive review of the trade pact.

  Each DPP legislator also ­received an “ECFA battle guide” from the party during the meeting, which relayed the DPP’s official position on the ECFA and how the DPP wants its lawmakers to continue to oppose the agreement during the provisional session.

  In a related development, the Executive Yuan resolved yesterday that the Ministry of Economic Affairs would establish a center to attract global investors next month, Cabinet officials said.

  The decision came after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Thursday last week said the Executive Yuan would set up a task force to propose strategies to attract investors from Europe, the US and Japan.
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