DPP urges consensus before CECA is signed

Tsai issued the call in response to a newspaper report that quoted Secretary-General Su Chi of the National Security Council as saying that the government has set the tone of signing a CECA with China in the future and that negotiations with China on the issue will begin through the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).

According to Tsai, the government should be “more prudent” about the issue as it would affect the country's economy and politics profoundly.

Tsai continued that the government should inform and convince the public about the purpose of signing a CECA with China. If the government signs a CECA without the consensus of the people, it will have a negative impact on society, Tsai predicted.

Signing the CECA with China will involve delicate political issues that will cause a serious social conflict in Taiwan, if the government fails to seek the approval of the people.

The DPP head also stressed that the government should discuss and study the feasibility study of the signing of the pact in a transparent way, reasoning that this is the only way to allow Taiwanese people to understand how the government will affect Taiwan economically, socially and politically.

Just one day earlier, Economics Minister Yiin Chii-ming noted that his ministry will meticulously weigh the possibility of signing the CECA with China under the premises that the pact can be signed without sacrificing the overall interests of the country's industrial sectors.

Yiin made the remarks in response to the calls from six major local industry and business groups for forging closer economic links with the other side of the Taiwan Strait by signing a CECA and moving quickly to liberalize cross-strait trade through actions such as removal of tariffs.

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