The first part of the bilateral trade deal known as the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade was approved by the cabinet on Thursday, and will now be sent to the legislature. Taiwanese law requires international trade agreements to be ratified by the legislature before they can be implemented.
Both the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and opposition Kuomintang (KMT) have stated their intent to put the deal on their respective legislative agendas. In response to reporters' questions on Friday, Premier Chen Chien-Jen (陳建仁) says he respects the power of the legislature and hopes they will complete all the procedures necessary to pass the deal.
In a recent interview, lead negotiator of the agreement John Deng (鄧振中) said he was worried the legislature might use a line-by-line process to approve the deal, which would make negotiations impossible.
According to CNA, officials from the Executive Yuan stated on Friday that they will respect the legislature’s process, whether they decide to debate the deal as a whole, or on an item-by-item basis.