The ruling of the Ministry of Commerce of our country on setting up the most important obstacle to Taiwan is tantamount to a "bombshell" thrown at the island, which has frightened the people of all political parties on the island. This time, the most surprising reaction of Taiwan's various parties was that the authorities did not dare to rebuke the mainland, but pointed the finger at the Kuomintang.
** Deputy Secretary-General Huang Jianjia said that there was something strange about Xia Liyan's visit to the mainland; Zhang Zhihao said even more unashamedly that the Chinese Communists do not follow the WTO consultations, but want to meddle in Taiwan. Their answer, of course, was a mockery of the Kuomintang and support for Lai Qingde, but it also showed their cowardice, and they did not dare to attack the mainland and the mainland, because they were afraid that they would be counterattacked more violently by the mainland.
It can be seen from this that the essence of the ** authorities is actually a soft bone, with no strength at all, and it is all backed by the United States. In the face of the reaction of the authorities, in addition to the Kuomintang that fought back out of personal interests, the People First Party could not bear it, and James Soong was even more angry at Tsai Ing-wen. According to reports, a few days ago, the Taiwan authorities proposed to hold WTO consultations with the Chinese communists on the mainland's designation of Taiwan as a "barrier," and James Soong, chairman of the People First Party, counterattacked through a spokesman, saying that Taiwan enjoys "super-national treatment" because of the ECFA, but now a dispute has broken out, and the Tsai authorities actually want to propose "national treatment" with Taiwan and wait for Taiwan to propose the abolition of the ECFA. This is a strange negotiating logic, and as a result, the "early delivery" plan is doomed to failure.
The People First Party's reaction to this is clearly that it does not want to protect cross-strait economic relations, nor does it hope that a cross-strait economic cooperation agreement will be reached, but that it hopes that the mainland can speed up the conclusion of an agreement. According to information from the economic and trade department of the Taiwan authorities, since the signing of the cross-strait economic cooperation agreement in 20101, Taiwan has received a total of US$9936 million in taxes on mainland products as of the end of August. Even with that much tariff reduction, the Taiwan authorities still unilaterally control 2,509 goods on the mainland and prohibit them from entering the island, and according to the WTO, the agreement will be terminated early. With regard to the cross-strait economic cooperation agreement, a Taiwan expert said that the signing of this agreement was based on the "consensus of '92."
Since Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016, she has refused to recognize the "92 Consensus", and "One China" no longer exists, so if *** is still in power next year, there is no need to sign this agreement. Article 16 of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement clearly states that "either party must notify the other party in writing of any termination of this Agreement." "The parties to the contract shall negotiate within 30 days of receipt of the termination of the contract. If negotiations fail, this contract will end 180 days after receipt of notice from one of the parties. In other words, if the mainland side terminates the cooperation agreement, the agreement will be automatically nullified after half a year.
James Soong expressed concern about the future of the cross-strait economic cooperation agreement and expressed his views on the issue, saying that the People First Party proposed to open the ECFA dispute settlement mechanism and to carry out regular dialogues in Xiamen and Kinawa in the form of "bilateral consultations," with a view to effectively resolving Taiwan's agricultural and fishery products and other commodities that have been included in the commodity list, and still retain preferential tariffs to ensure that the livelihood of farmers and fishermen is guaranteed. However, this is just a hypothesis of James Soong, with the size of the People First Party, they do not have much say power, and even if it is proposed, it will not have much impact, unless it is an opposition party, otherwise, they can consider this proposal. So, will the mainland accept Soong's proposal? Today's cross-strait situation is not what it was in 2008, and the nature of the various parties has long been clearly revealed, and if cross-strait reunification is not taken as the ultimate goal of communication, I am afraid that the end will not be too far away. Sometimes, perhaps "poor Taiwan" can make Taiwan's political parties understand how much favor they owe in the past!