Lawmakers cannot revise ECFA: Ma

Ma said lawmakers can either endorse or reject the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), but cannot revise it — a stance that has yet to receive full support from Wang.

Ma was making remarks at a public event that Wang was also supposed to attend.

But Wang canceled the itinerary at the last minute, fueling speculation over the row between the pair.

Asked to comment on rumors that the main opposition was trying to team up with Wang to tie Ma's hands, the president simply smiled without answering.

Wang later told the media that he did not care what the rumors said about the Democratic Progressive Party's attempt to divide him from Ma.

But the Legislature must be firm about its own stance, as this is the value of democracy and everything must fall within the legal perimeter, the speaker said.

“Otherwise, the Legislature cannot maintain its autonomy,” said Wang.

Ruling and opposition legislators filed separate motions yesterday to hold a special session July 7 to deal with the newly signed ECFA with China and related issues.

The motions came one day after the Executive Yuan approved the agreement, which was signed in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, and forwarded it immediately to the legislature for review.

Also submitted was a cross Taiwan Strait intellectual property rights protection agreement and proposed amendments to the Patent Act, Trademark Act, Customs Import Tariff, and the Plant Variety and Plant Seed Act, which have become necessary following the conclusion of the ECFA.

Before it was singed on June 29, the nation was divided over whether the ECFA should be signed.

But now spotlight has been shifted to the ECFA's status — whether or not it is a treaty signed between two countries.

Ma insists that it is comparable to a treaty that the Legislature cannot revise.

He has also argued that lawmakers have never screened any previous treaties in detail.

But according to the Legislature's records, lawmakers did review every single clause of Taiwan's free trade agreements (FTAs) with El Salvador and Honduras on the committee level.

DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen noted that lawmakers did not revise previous FTAs because there was little controversy over the content, but legislative committees did screen them clause by clause.

She described Ma's call for a “package vote” for the ECFA as a deviation from the principles of constitutional politics and from the logic that a law scholar should adhere to. Ma was a law professor.

She also faulted Ma for painting a rosy picture for ECFA that can never become reality.

Presidential spokesman Lo Chih-chiang stressed that Ma and Wang actually concur on the fact that the ECFA is not a treaty.

But Ma only insists that the ECFA be given the status of a treaty.

The constitutional court has ruled that the ECFA is not a treaty, but it has not concluded that it cannot be given such a status when lawmakers handle it.

Premier Wu Den-yih said there only “minor” differences between Ma and Wang.

As head of the Legislature who needs to preside over negotiations between the ruling Kuomintang and DPP caucuses, Wang chooses not be take side, Wu said.

But the premier stressed that the Legislature can only conduct a final vote on the ECFA, without committees conducting reviews that would allow them to revise the pact.

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