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DPP vows to resist
‘unfair’ trade pact
CONCERN: The 64 sectors to be opened to Chinese
investment could involve more than 1,000 sub-sectors, harming small businesses
the most, a spokesperson said
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
Chairman Su Tseng-chang, third left, shakes hands with Greater Tainan Mayor
William Lai at a Central Standing Committee meeting in Taipei yesterday with DPP
local government leaders to discuss the recently signed cross-strait service
trade agreement.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
yesterday said it would set up two lines of defense against the opaque and
unfair cross-strait service trade agreement, at the legislature and at local
government level.
“The legislature, after a negotiation, has said that it will screen and vote on
the pact clause by clause. If the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) pushes the
pact through the legislature, local governments can take administrative measures
to counter the agreement,” DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said after the
party’s weekly Central Standing Committee (CSC) meeting, which leaders of five
of the six DPP-governed cities and counties attended.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德), Pingtung County
Commissioner Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻), Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠)
and Yilan County Deputy Commissioner Wu Tze-cheng (吳澤成) attended the meeting.
The DPP supports free trade, but it is strongly opposed to the way the
administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) handled the negotiations, Su
said.
There was a lack of transparency, a failure to keep the affected sectors
informed and the negotiations were conducted without a comprehensive assessment
of the potential impact on Taiwan’s economy, in particular small and
medium-sized enterprises and the job market, Su said.
The 64 sectors the government proposes to open to Chinese investment could
involve more than 1,000 sub-sectors, harming small businesses and vendors the
most, DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
A CSC resolution reached yesterday demanded that lawmakers across party lines
strictly monitor the pact and that the central government submit an impact
assessment report as soon as possible, Lin said, adding that if the KMT tries to
forcibly push the pact through the legislature, the DPP would not rule out
countermeasures, including a massive demonstration, because the potential
adverse impact on local businesses would be huge.
Greater Kaohsiung is likely to suffer tremendous damage from the pact as the
city accounts for 12.13 percent of companies in the service sector and 8.92
percent of the sector’s annual revenue, Chen told a press conference held after
the CSC meeting.
“Up to 4 million workers in the sector across the country could be impacted by
the agreement. I call on every lawmaker to view people’s livelihoods as the
priority when he or she reviews the agreement,” Chen Chu said.
Lai described Ma’s decision to sign the service trade agreement as “unwise” at a
time when the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), which was signed
in 2010, has failed to live up to the president’s pledge that it would benefit
the nation’s economy.
“The worst thing was that the government neither made negotiations transparent,
nor consulted the related sectors, nor formulated any supporting measures to
minimize the negative impact,” Lai said.
Wu said 62.1 percent of the service sector workers in Yilan County could be
affected by the agreement, which was why the pact has caused panic among
residents of the county.
The grouper breeding sector in Pingtung and the tourism industry in Chiayi
County were supposed to blossom after the signing of the ECFA, according to Ma,
but both sectors have suffered from destructive competition from Chinese
investment backed by state-run companies and government subsidies, Tsao and
Chang said.
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