President Ma Ying-jeou says the government supports the creation a new law that would allow for closer legislative monitoring of future trade deals with China. He was speaking on Monday in a meeting with local business and industry leaders.
Ma’s comments follow a mass rally, organized by student protestors on Sunday. One of the protesters’ demands was for a new law to monitor trade deals with China. The protesters say Taiwan’s democracy and economy will be jeopardized without close monitoring.
Ma said Monday that the government is already addressing the issue.
"The Mainland Affairs Council has already taken steps to map out a plan," said Ma. "The plan will be submitted to the legislature for approval once it gets the green light from the Cabinet, on Thursday at the earliest. In other words, we have accepted the first request made by protesters and are actively working on it.”
As to the protesters’ demands for a cross-partisan conference with representatives from all sectors of society, the president said the Cabinet will complete a comprehensive evaluation by Thursday. The government has decided to give the meeting an official name: National Affairs Conference on Economy and Trade.
Ma said the government has also already agreed to a clause-by-clause review of the trade in services agreement that Taiwan signed with China last June. However, he said, the agreement cannot be retracted, as requested by protesters, because it would hurt Taiwan’s economy.
While the president says he has responded positively to three of the four demands, protest leader Lin Fei-fan says the president has yet to offer specifics.