The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it would set up two lines of defense against the opaque and unfair cross-strait service trade agreement, at the legislature and at local government level.
“The legislature, after a negotiation, has said that it will screen and vote on the pact clause by clause. If the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) pushes the pact through the legislature, local governments can take administrative measures to counter the agreement,” DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said after the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee (CSC) meeting, which leaders of five of the six DPP-governed cities and counties attended.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德), Pingtung County Commissioner Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻), Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) and Yilan County Deputy Commissioner Wu Tze-cheng (吳澤成) attended the meeting.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The DPP supports free trade, but it is strongly opposed to the way the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) handled the negotiations, Su said.
There was a lack of transparency, a failure to keep the affected sectors informed and the negotiations were conducted without a comprehensive assessment of the potential impact on Taiwan’s economy, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises and the job market, Su said.
The 64 sectors the government proposes to open to Chinese investment could involve more than 1,000 sub-sectors, harming small businesses and vendors the most, DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
A CSC resolution reached yesterday demanded that lawmakers across party lines strictly monitor the pact and that the central government submit an impact assessment report as soon as possible, Lin said, adding that if the KMT tries to forcibly push the pact through the legislature, the DPP would not rule out countermeasures, including a massive demonstration, because the potential adverse impact on local businesses would be huge.
Greater Kaohsiung is likely to suffer tremendous damage from the pact as the city accounts for 12.13 percent of companies in the service sector and 8.92 percent of the sector’s annual revenue, Chen told a press conference held after the CSC meeting.
“Up to 4 million workers in the sector across the country could be impacted by the agreement. I call on every lawmaker to view people’s livelihoods as the priority when he or she reviews the agreement,” Chen Chu said.
Lai described Ma’s decision to sign the service trade agreement as “unwise” at a time when the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), which was signed in 2010, has failed to live up to the president’s pledge that it would benefit the nation’s economy.
“The worst thing was that the government neither made negotiations transparent, nor consulted the related sectors, nor formulated any supporting measures to minimize the negative impact,” Lai said.
Wu said 62.1 percent of the service sector workers in Yilan County could be affected by the agreement, which was why the pact has caused panic among residents of the county.
The grouper breeding sector in Pingtung and the tourism industry in Chiayi County were supposed to blossom after the signing of the ECFA, according to Ma, but both sectors have suffered from destructive competition from Chinese investment backed by state-run companies and government subsidies, Tsao and Chang said.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all