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Trade pact stalls on
confidence: poll
PUBLIC TRUST: A majority of respondents
expressed concern over the Ma government¡¦s ability to protect the interests of
the public and domestic industries
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
A protester opposing a service
trade agreement between Taiwan and China is stopped by police as he tries to
climb across the fence during a demonstration outside the Legislative Yuan in
Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
A public opinion poll released yesterday
showed that most people support fair trade and cross-strait trade
liberalization, but lack confidence in the capability of President Ma Ying-jeou¡¦s
(°¨^¤E) administration to safeguard Taiwanese interests in its engagement with
China.
The survey, conducted by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research (TISR), asked
respondents about their views on a recently signed service trade pact between
Taiwan and China. It found that 58.7 of respondents supported Taiwan¡¦s pursuit
of economic partnership agreements in general; only 16.5 percent did not support
the move and 24.8 percent declined to answer.
However, opinions were divided on cross-strait economic relations, with 43.3
percent of respondents saying they believed Ma¡¦s push for cross-strait trade
liberalization would improve Taiwan¡¦s competitiveness, while 34.3 percent said
the president¡¦s policy would increase the nation¡¦s economic dependence on China.
The survey also found that 42.7 percent of respondents thought the service trade
agreement was unnecessary ¡X almost 10 percentage points higher than the 32.6
percent who supported the pact ¡X while 24.7 percent said they had no opinion.
A further breakdown of the poll data showed how opinions were divided along
political lines, with 57.9 percent of pan-blue supporters favoring the pact and
72.5 percent of pan-green supporters opposing the deal.
Opinions among those who identified themselves as independent voters were more
balanced: 40.4 percent disapproved of the pact, against 27.2 percent who
supported it.
Public confidence in the Ma administration¡¦s ability was also low, with 62.3
percent of respondents saying they did not believe the government would be able
to reduce the adverse impact of opening the domestic market to China and to
safeguard local industries¡¦ interests. Only 21.6 percent of respondents
expressed their confidence in the government, while 16.1 percent gave no answer.
According to TISR, the percentage of respondents who said they were confident
about the Ma administration¡¦s capability to deal with the impact of cross-strait
trade liberalization dropped by 9.1 percentage points compared with a poll
conducted in 2009, when Taipei began negotiations with Beijing over the Economic
Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
At the same time, the number of people who were doubtful of the government¡¦s
capability to deal with the issue increased by 13.1 percentage points, TISR said
in a press release.
The survey also found that Premier Jiang Yi-huah¡¦s (¦¿©y¾ì) approval rating of 17.7
percent was the lowest since he assumed the post in February, while Ma¡¦s
disapproval rating remained dismal at 70.7 percent.
The survey, conducted from July 24 to 26, collected 1,008 valid samples and had
a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
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