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Legislature should oversee ECFA
By Hawang Shiow-duan ¶À¨qºÝ
Monday, Apr 05, 2010, Page 8
Representatives from Taiwan and China have just completed the second round of
economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) talks in Taoyuan. The government
has still not clarified the contents of the agreement, which will affect
millions of Taiwanese. This seems to contradict the decision-making process of a
democratic country and is very worrying.
If we look back at the earlier cross-strait agreements reached by Taiwan¡¦s
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China¡¦s Association for Relations Across
the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), we soon realize that such worries are well-founded.
The cross-strait air and sea transport agreements signed at the second round of
the SEF-ARATS talks were submitted for legislative review because they required
legal amendments. The Chinese Nationalist Party¡¦s (KMT) attempts to use its
majority to muscle through the changes drew protests from Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP) legislators and resulted in negotiations between the party caucuses.
Nothing has happened since then, and the agreements came into effect without the
required legal amendments.
At the third round of talks three agreements were signed, and although the
legislature clamored for the right to substantial review of the agreements, a
joint meeting of the legislative committees was dissolved because the legally
stipulated threshold required for a resolution could not be reached. The
committees never completed the review and so these three agreements also took
effect by default.
The agreements signed at the fourth round of talks between the SEF and ARATS
directly involved important national affairs and the rights and duties of
citizens. The agreements were legally binding and should have been subject to
legislative oversight. However, the 12 signed agreements and the meeting minutes
came into effect before the legislature had completed a review or even been
informed about their contents.
The ECFA will have a major impact on Taiwan¡¦s future industrial development and
blue-collar workers¡¦ right to work. It is necessary that such an agreement be
monitored by the legislature. Legislators shouldn¡¦t just wave their party
banners and shout slogans, they should properly monitor these agreements. Still,
no one is willing to make the effort to carry out a true review or implement
controls.
The DPP¡¦s legislative caucus is requesting that the dissolved Advisory Group on
Cross-Strait Affairs be reinstated. Legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (¤ýª÷¥) was
apparently not opposed to the idea, but after the KMT expressed its opposition,
he backed down, and this is unfortunate.
The legislature has the power to set up new committees based on need. An
advisory group on cross-strait affairs could monitor cross-strait policy
developments and requesting that the government evaluate the various policies.
That could avoid a situation in which the division between several committees
leads to a lack of oversight and overall evaluation. To facilitate the safe
passage of agreements through Congress, the US government lets senators
participate in negotiations or solicits their opinion. Allowing participation in
the preparatory stages of a cross-strait agreement increases the chances of a
smooth review process.
Giving the legislature monitoring power isn¡¦t just a matter of conforming to
democratic principles, it is also the law in Taiwan. Based on the Council of
Grand Justices¡¦ constitutional interpretation No. 520, the legislature and the
Cabinet share the decision-making power. This means that the legislature should
not only be given formal participation in the ECFA process, but that it should
also exercise substantial oversight.
The legislature represents the people and their sovereignty and there is no
question that it should participate in negotiations and oversee agreements. The
ECFA talks and the signing of the agreement involve a high level of external
risk and internal suspicion. Signing an economic pact with China will have a
great impact on the public¡¦s interests and so it is not to the benefit of Taiwan
if the legislature cannot monitor this process. Legislators should take a more
active role because we need forceful legislative oversight. They must not give
up their powers and let the Cabinet do whatever it wants.
Hawang Shiow-duan is a professor of political science at
Soochow University.
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