The Ministry of Economic Affairs came under fire after a draft free-trade agreement between South Korea and China was revealed on Wednesday, as the tariff reductions proposed in the pact were not as significant as the ministry previously claimed.
Critics said that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration exaggerated the impact of the pending treaty to coerce the public into supporting trade agreements between Taiwan and China.
They said that the ministry used the Beijing-Seoul deal as a “scare tactic” in an attempt to swing the vote in the KMT’s favor during last year’s nine-in-one elections.
Photo: CNA
In November last year, the ministry said that the pending Beijing-Seoul pact would deal a NT$650 billion (US$20.7 billion) blow to Taiwan’s economy and urged the nation to ratify the proposed cross-strait service trade agreement to mitigate the impact.
A KMT campaign advertisement leading up to the elections last year featured a woman dressed in traditional Korean garb who thanked the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for blocking cross-strait trade bills.
In contrast with the ministry’s earlier claims, Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng (鄧振中) on Wednesday said that the draft was “quite different” from the ministry’s previous expectations.
According to the Beijing-Seoul draft, tariffs for many industries considered key export industries for Taiwan will not be reduced significantly — including LCD panels, automobile parts, petrochemicals and machine tools.
Human rights lawyer and Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) yesterday said that the unveiled contents of the draft “shattered all sorts of exaggerated and unrealistic threats” by the KMT.
Lai said that the pending Beijing-Seoul agreement gradually lowers tariffs between the two nations over a buffer period of 20 years.
“Members of the public should not panic over the agreement,” Lai said.
Lai added that the transparent deliberation process of the pact could serve as an example for Taiwan, as both China and South Korea would be given another four months to conduct economic assessments of the draft before the treaty is ratified.
He said the “transparency mechanism” presented by the Beijing-Seoul treaty could serve as a lesson for the KMT administration in its interactions with China.
Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets last year during the Sunflower movement, after a KMT legislator was perceived to ram through the proposed cross-strait service trade agreement while bypassing legislative deliberation.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and