The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would seek a trade deal with Beijing under international rules if it returns to power, seeking safeguards for Taiwan that it says are missing in the pact the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government plans to sign next month.
China and Taiwan, which conduct US$109 billion in annual two-way trade, need a deal under the WTO that would give Taiwan tariff reduction benefits but not be too hasty, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
“We are trading with a country that has this very aggressive political intention,” Tsai said in an interview. “We’d be telling Beijing that the immediate task in the trade area between the two of us is to be good citizens of the WTO community.”
“We are guaranteed we would not be discriminated against. We would be competing with others everywhere on equal terms,” she added.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration is pushing an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China, which it says is essential to ensure the competitiveness of Taiwan’s economy. However, opponents fear the deal would allow China to pursue its claim of sovereignty over Taiwan and would also lead to massive unemployment as Taiwan is swamped by cheap Chinese goods.
A DPP-led government, if re-elected in elections due in 2012, would propose a referendum on the deal and scrap the pact if most voters expressed opposition, Tsai said.
While financial markets have largely backed an ECFA deal, eyeing the potential benefits to Taiwan’s top exporters, Tsai however sees “rushing into ECFA” as dangerous as it would not allow Taiwan’s economy time enough to restructure to deal with the new environment.
“We have no hurry for that ECFA thing,” said Tsai, 53, a forthright former law scholar and professor with degrees from Cornell and London Universities who was Taiwan’s vice premier in 2006.
“The issue is how urgent we need this sort of agreement with China,” she said in the interview conducted in English. “Our argument is there is no urgency for that kind of agreement with China. Our companies are doing OK.”
Previous efforts to build trade ties when the DPP ruled from 2000 to 2008 struggled as the party’s anti-China rhetoric outraged Beijing.
Tsai said the opposition would pursue a separate dialogue mechanism with Beijing, possibly under the umbrella of an outside organization, to seek peace and “teach Beijing about the island’s democracy.”
The party has already organized a group of scholars and non-governmental organizations to open talks, she said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
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