The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday reiterated its concerns about the cross-strait service trade agreement signed by Taiwan and China and said it would brief the diplomatic corps in Taiwan on the subject by the end of the month.
Rather than communicating with local service sectors that could be affected before signing the agreement, the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) tried to mobilize Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and government officials for nationwide seminars to calm public concerns after the pact was signed, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said.
The DPP vowed to monitor the agreement, which has been opposed by academics, businesspeople and KMT lawmakers, clause-by-clause in the legislature and the party is planning to brief foreign representatives in Taiwan about the party’s position, DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said after the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting.
The briefing of the diplomatic corps was not specially arranged because it is a regular biannual practice, DPP Department of International Affairs director Liu Shih-chung (劉世忠) said.
The party has conducted biannual briefings about political developments in Taiwan to foreign representatives, with the most recent briefing held in December last year, Liu said, adding that the briefing would likely cover more than just the cross-strait service trade agreement.
Liu, DPP Policy Research Committee executive director Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and Department of China Affairs director Honigmann Hong (洪財隆) would discuss the DPP’s domestic policies, including pension reform, foreign policy and Su’s visit to the US, as well as cross-strait issues, including the pact and a re-examination of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), which was signed in 2010.
The Ma administration held a similar briefing for the diplomatic corps last week, with several representatives wanting to know if the agreement would be revised in the legislature and be renegotiated.
A Central Standing Committee member, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said the DPP is considering a policy recommendation to force the pact to be renegotiated, but the party understands that the approach could be risky.
The party is concerned that the Executive Yuan could cite Article 95 of the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) and ignore the legislature.
The article stipulates that if the legislature fails to adopt a resolution within a month of it being requested, consent is deemed granted.
However, the text is vague and it would depend on how the various parties interpret the clause, the committee member said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS