The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it planned to call a second provisional legislative meeting on Aug. 16 to pass the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China.
Caucus secretary-general Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said KMT lawmakers hoped to hold the provisional session from Aug. 16 to Aug. 31 in a bid to pass the ECFA and a cross-strait copyright protection pact, as well as amend related laws.
During the first provisional session, pan-blue lawmakers agreed on July 9 to refer the ECFA and the copyright deal to a one-month cross-party negotiation period and to allow the pacts to skip a preliminary review, triggering a walkout by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers.
Under legislative rules, the legislature has to call a vote on a bill after the negotiation period ends.
Lin said the KMT caucus would also include three other proposals on next month’s agenda that would allow Chinese students to enroll in Taiwanese universities and give recognition to Chinese educational credentials. All three proposals are controversial.
However, the caucus will not seek to include a proposed amendment to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) in the agenda because the bill remains “too controversial,” Lin said.
“Local governments have not reached a consensus [as to how to amend the act], so everyone still needs to communicate, but the three bills concerning Chinese students will be included in the agenda because the bills have been stalled for two years,” he said.
Lin said it remains uncertain whether the bill that would reform the National Health Insurance system will be part of agenda.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the KMT caucus had failed to properly prioritize items on the agenda.
The DPP caucus has a different set of priorities for the session because it believes priority should be given to revising the Public Debt Act (公共債務法) and the Act Governing the Allocation for Government Revenues and Expenditures, he said.
More attention should be paid to local government budgets and other financial issues, with the year-end elections around the corner, he said.
“These proposals should be handled first, but instead the KMT wants to put the cart before the horse and first handle the laws concerning Chinese students,” Ker said.
While the DPP caucus will end its boycott for the second provisional legislative session, it would not “passively cooperate” with the KMT caucus on its proposals, Ker said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY VINCENT Y. CHAO
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
RSS