A broad trade pact between Taiwan and China could be set back as legislators review and possibly overrule it, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday.
Taiwan’s polarized legislature could ask the government to change an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China, which is expected to take the form of a free-trade-style deal that would lower tariffs in hundreds of sectors, Wang said.
The government has said it hopes to sign the agreement at a formal meeting with Beijing officials early this year. The deal is expected to open trade links between Taiwan and other Asian economies.
PHOTO: STEVE CHAN, REUTERS
“We can’t change the content of [an] ECFA, but we can overrule it or support it,” Wang said in an interview.
If the legislature overrules the pact, he said, legislators would ask the government to redo parts of the deal.
Some in Taiwan fear the pact would allow an unwelcome flood of Chinese goods into Taiwan’s economy. Their opposition could pressure legislators to take action.
“After it’s signed, does it affect the country’s sovereignty, and secondly is there anything that harms national security?” Wang said. “And will it create any impact on people’s rights and interests? We will evaluate it according to these criteria.”
The legislature hopes to spend more than a legal limit of one month to deliberate the deal after the two sides initially sign it, he said.
“If Taiwan doesn’t sign an ECFA with China this year, our competitiveness of course will be weakened, but that doesn’t go as far as saying we won’t survive,” Wang said.
Taiwan has floated to China a confidential list of 700 to 1,000 items for tariff revisions under an ECFA, subject to negotiations, analysts said.
Reports say Taiwanese officials have sought aggressive tariff cuts for textiles, machinery and petrochemical products.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we