The government must have a potential trade agreement with the US reviewed by the Legislative Yuan first to ensure transparency, the TW-US Citizen Watch Alliance said yesterday.
The alliance, composed of labor, environmental and human rights groups in Taiwan, submitted petitions on the issue to the Executive Yuan, the Legislative Yuan and the American Institute in Taiwan yesterday afternoon.
On Friday last week, the Office of Trade Negotiations of the Executive Yuan issued a statement saying that Taiwan and the US would soon sign an agreement on five issues to conclude the first phase of the trade negotiations for the Taiwan-US Initiative on 21st-Century Trade. These are: trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, domestic service regulations, anti-corruption issues, and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Both governments will continue negotiations over at least seven other topics, with the goal of completing all negotiations by the end of this year, the statement said.
On the legal status of the agreement, the Executive Yuan said it is an “executive agreement.”
“We believe that it would be in violation of the Conclusion of Treaties Act (條約締結法) and not be in accordance with procedural justice should this trade agreement be categorized as an executive agreement,” the alliance said.
The act stipulates that an executive agreement only needs to be signed and sent to the Legislative Yuan for future reference, while a treaty must be reviewed and approved by the Legislative Yuan after it was signed, with few exceptions, the alliance said.
Article 3 further stipulates that international agreements that “involve national defense, foreign affairs, financial matters, economic interests, or other issues of national interest” are considered treaties, it said.
Taiwan has signed 12 trade agreements with other countries, all of which have been submitted to the Legislative Yuan for review as treaties, it said.
“Unless the initiative is really not that important, we cannot think of any reason why the final signed document should not be sent to the Legislative Yuan for review,” the alliance said.
Although the government has tried to solicit the public’s input on the initiative by placing the topic on the Public Policy Online Participation Network Platform, it drew only 33 comments as only very brief introductions of the trade agreement was provided, it said.
The agreement is an important issue, but what has been done so far hardly meets the criteria of public participation and information transparency, it said.
Chinese Nationalist Party legislators Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Lee Guei-min (李貴敏) and Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) said not having the agreement reviewed by lawmakers goes against the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) long-standing principle of transparency and responsibility to the people.
“Although the issues tackled in the first phase of trade negotiations do not involve custom tariffs, the DPP government should not be afraid of legislative oversight when it signs such a great treaty with the US,” they said.
The agreement will automatically take effect if it is signed after the legislative session ends on Wednesday next week, Chiang said.
“However, people know nothing about the trade agreement. The Office of Trade Negotiations should brief lawmakers on the details of the agreement and invite civic groups to attend a hearing on this matter,” he said.
Taiwan People’s Party caucus deputy director Oliver Hsu (徐文路) said the voice of civic groups should be heard as the agreement covers finance, environment and workers’ issues.
‘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
RSS