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.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS