The cross-strait service trade agreement is expected to face strong resistance on the legislative floor when the new session opens this month, as opposition lawmakers remain strongly against the pact, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said yesterday.
Lin, who heads his party’s Central Policy Committee, said he thinks opposition legislators, in particular Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers, will try their best to block the agreement.
In light of this, it cannot be said if or when the agreement will be approved during the new legislative session, which starts on Sept. 17, Lin said.
The agreement, signed in Shanghai on June 21 between Taiwan and China, seeks to open up the service sectors on each side to the other.
However, the opposition parties, some academics and members of the private sector have objected to the pact, saying it will negatively affect Taiwan’s service industry and eventually hurt the local job market.
Since the review of the pact in the committee stage during the most recent legislative session, some opposition lawmakers have withdrawn their support even for non-controversial sections of the agreement and have vowed to boycott its legislative processing, Lin said.
Against this background, the legislature plans to hold 16 public hearings on the issue before it begins review of the agreement in the new session, in November at the earliest, Lin said.
In addition, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) are scheduled to hold a televised debate on Sept. 15 on the service trade pact, under which Taiwan has agreed to allow China to run businesses in areas such as printing, car rental, cargo transportation, gondolas, beauty parlors and salons, online gaming and funeral services.
Meanwhile, China has agreed to open businesses such as e-commerce, printing, hospitals, construction and transportation to Taiwanese investors.
Legislative approval of the pact will depend on the opposition parties, Lin said, adding that the KMT wants to see it passed by the end of the year because it will help to improve Taiwanese people’s well-being and benefit the country.
KMT Legislator Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩) supported Lin’s views and agreed that the ruling party will encounter a “very difficult battle” over the agreement in the new legislative session.
The agreement is considered the most significant economic accord between Taiwan and China since they signed the landmark Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement in 2010.
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
PRO-CHINA SLOGANS: Two DPP members criticized police officers’ lack of action at the scene, saying that law enforcement authorities should investigate the incident Chinese tourists allegedly interrupted a protest in Taipei on Tuesday held by Hong Kongers, knocked down several flags and shouted: “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China.” Hong Kong democracy activists were holding a demonstration as Tuesday was China’s National Day. A video posted online by civic group Hong Kong Outlanders shows a couple, who are allegedly Chinese, during the demonstration. “Today is China’s National Day, and I won’t allow the displaying of these flags,” the male yells in the video before pushing some demonstrators and knocking down a few flagpoles. Radio Free Asia reported that some of the demonstrators
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
RSS