Most businesspeople and experts do not see a need to revive plans for a controversial cross-strait service trade agreement with China, Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Jan Jyh-horng (詹志宏) said on Thursday.
Debate on the issue reignited following news reports that a draft policy white paper by Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), the party’s presidential candidate, had advocated restarting negotiations with Beijing on the pact.
The agreement, which was originally signed by China and the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government in 2013, aimed to liberalize trade and investment rules between the two economies in service industries, including finance, tourism, healthcare, telecoms and publishing.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
The KMT’s attempt to hastily ratify the pact in the legislature set off the student-led Sunflower movement in 2014, which ultimately led to the agreement being shelved.
The administration of then-president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) bid to integrate the Taiwanese economy with China played into Beijing’s strategy of locking Taiwan into its orbit, Jan said, adding that the project has lost all relevance due to the significant changes that have taken place in the decade following its inception.
The vast majority of entrepreneurs and academics do not see a need for reviving the agreement, he said.
Taiwan has always been willing to talk about trade with China, but the problem is Beijing has steadfastly refused to utilize the existing mechanisms for dialogue to pressure the nation into making concessions that comprise sovereignty, he added.
Separately, Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that speaking of restarting the agreement amid rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait and international economic and political crises is “tantamount to ... opening the gates to the enemy.”
In response to the news reports, Ko last week said that he had not yet formally proposed renegotiating the agreement.
He said that while he had always opposed the KMT’s “black box” tactics to force the pact through the legislature, he was not opposed to the agreement itself, as long as it was reviewed via democratic means.
Additional reporting by Kan Meng-lin
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