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Service pact opacity
leaves opposition in dark: TSU
OPAQUE: The TSU said that businesses and even
many officials have little idea about what is in the pact. It also said it would
support a civic group’s recall campaign
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The pan-green camp yesterday said the opaque nature of the cross-strait service
trade agreement has made business owners confused and the scheduled debate next
month between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) would be unfair.
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) told a press
conference that Su is already at a disadvantage in the debate about the pact,
scheduled for next month, because people outside of Ma’s policymaking circle
have received only very limited information about the agreement.
“The debate is going to be unfair for Chairman Su because of the information
asymmetry, thus offering Ma an opportunity to pull himself out of the current
mire,” Huang said.
“The administrative branch has never provided a comprehensive introduction to
the agreement, which covers hundreds of service sectors. The only thing it sent
to the legislature was the full text and the appendixes of the pact,” he added.
The DPP legislative caucus also raised concerns at a separate news conference
about the Ma administration’s handling of the pact almost two months after it
was signed, saying that many government officials, as well as small business
owners, remained confused about the extent of liberalization under the
agreement.
Citing the example of the jewelry industry, DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬)
said that not only were jewelry store owners unsure whether the sector was to be
liberalized under the pact, but so was a senior official in the Department of
Commerce under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, who was quoted as saying that
the jewelry sub-sector “could be on the list.”
Asked about the potential impact of the agreement on the sector, the official
was quoted as saying: “The estimated impact should be small, otherwise we would
be hearing a lot of complaints from people in the [jewelry] sector. ”
The answer showed how little many officials know about the agreement, under
which 64 local service industry sub-sectors will be opened to Chinese
investment, while China will open up 80 sectors to Taiwan, Gao said.
The lawmaker said the caucus supported the debate between Su and Ma and would
try to defend the public’s interests on the other front line — the Legislative
Yuan — when the pact is screened clause-by-clause in the new session.
In related news, both the DPP and the TSU said they would support the recall
campaign initiated by the civic group Constitution 133 Alliance, which was
recently established with the goal of recalling legislators it sees as
incompetent.
DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said the party fully supports the campaign
and would contact the alliance and offer assistance in the alliance’s petition
drive.
The TSU said it would launch a petition drive to recall KMT Legislator Wu Yu-cheng
(吳育昇), who was named by the alliance as the first candidate of the recall
campaign on Sunday because of what it said was his consistent alignment with Ma,
rather than with the public he is meant to serve, in Wu’s constituency in New
Taipei City (新北市).
The TSU plans to unveil its own recall candidates “when the time is ripe,” the
party said.
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