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Opposition slams
timing of service pact hearings
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Opposition parties yesterday blasted the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT)
decision to hold eight public hearings on the cross-strait service trade
agreement in three days, saying it was a strategy to push the agreement through
the Legislative Yuan as soon as possible.
Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠), one of the conveners of the legislature’s Internal
Administration Committee (IAC), has arranged eight of the 16 hearings required
by an earlier IAC resolution on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday next week, Taiwan
Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) told a news conference
yesterday.
“With less than one hour arranged for each hearing, which cover local service
sub-sectors expected to be affected by the agreement, it seems that the KMT is
trying to rush the process rather than listening to business owners’ voices,”
Hsu said.
Four public hearings have already been held in the legislature amid public fears
about possible negative impacts from the agreement, which was signed in June and
opened 64 sub-sectors in the service industry to Chinese investment, as an IAC
resolution required the legislature to hold 16 hearings to promote communication
between the government and local businesses before the pact is screened and
voted upon clause-by-clause in the legislature.
“President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) signed the agreement without prior consultation
with Taiwanese and is now trying to force his way through the public hearings.
It is unacceptable,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang
(蘇貞昌) said yesterday in Changhua County.
In a press release issued on Tuesday night, the DPP’s Department of China
Affairs Director Honigmann Hong (洪財隆) urged the KMT legislative caucus to uphold
democratic principles and re-schedule the hearings.
KMT caucus chief secretary Lin Te-fu (林德福) said the convener’s rights to arrange
meetings should be respected, adding that the opposition was only just trying to
delay the screening process.
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