The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) said it would again initiate a proposal for a referendum on a cross-strait trade pact despite two previous failed attempts.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said that although the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), a pact with China to reduce tariffs and relax cross-strait trade regulations, took effect in September, his party would again propose a referendum to the Central Election Commission on Monday.
The TSU has twice submitted referendum proposals asking voters whether they agreed that the government should sign an ECFA with China.
The proposals were rejected by the Executive Yuan’s Referendum Review Committee on June 3 and Aug. 11, on the ground that the question did not fall under what was allowed in the Referendum Act (公民投票法).
The TSU and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have assailed the decision and raised concerns that the rejection was the result of interference by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government.
Last year, a DPP-initiated referendum proposal, which would have asked voters if they agreed that the government should hold a referendum before signing an ECFA, was also rejected by the committee on the grounds that it was based on a hypothetical scenario.
“We want to remind Taiwanese that the negative impact of the agreement on Taiwan will soon emerge,” Huang said.
“It is high time for the people to express their opposition to the trade pact in the upcoming elections,” he added.
The elections in Taipei City, Sinbei City (the new name for Taipei County after it is upgraded next month), Greater Tainan, Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung, which will be held on Nov. 27, are seen as important and a bellwether for the 2012 presidential election.
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), the spiritual leader of the TSU said on Thursday that the ECFA was focused on a ‘one China’ market and that he would fight the trade pact to the end.
He said that Taiwan, as a member of the WTO, should regard the whole world, rather than just China, as its market.
“Taiwan should walk its own way, but President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has not done so, and has put all the country’s eggs in the China basket,” he said.
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