Monday, March 17, 2014

Service Pact Stuff

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The Miaoli 54.

The awesome John Tkacik rips the service pact.... (Taipei Times):
[The Singapore and N Zealand agreements] ASTEP and ANZTEC were signed under the WTO framework and enjoyed legal protection such as third party mediation and other resolutions and the equal stature of WTO members ensured a real increase in Taiwan’s export, whereas the cross-strait service trade agreement does not fall under such a category of trade agreements, he said.

The tertiary sectors in Taiwan and China are fundamentally different; the Chinese government is heavily involved in all of its tertiary sector, leading to a larger scale and more xenophobia, while the Taiwanese tertiary sector is smaller, but more vibrant, Tkacik said.

Chinese industries opened to Taiwan in the agreements are in Fujian Province and are excessively restricted, Tkacik said, adding that this observations led him to believe the Chinese were simply treating Taiwan as an extension of Fujian Province.

The more competitive Taiwanese financial industry would only exert minimal influence on its Chinese counterpart, Tkacik said.

......

In response to media inquiries, Tkacik said that only a few would benefit from the service trade agreement despite the seemingly rising number of Taiwanese businesspeople asking the government to ratify the agreement.

.....

On President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration’s claims that the service trade agreement would help Taiwan’s bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Tkacik said the opposite would probably be true as the service trade agreement would only muddy waters on increased economic integration between Taiwan and the US due to the pact’s lack of transparency.

It may cause the US to reconsider whether Taiwan would be China’s backdoor into the US market, Tkacik added.
It's a pretty good analysis of the Service Pact, which KMT leaders in the legislature have already indicated could come into effect without a vote:
Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘), a former chairman of the Council of Economic Planning and Development, said that Article 61 of the Legislative Yuan Functions Act stipulated that all committees of the Legislative Yuan must complete the review of regulations promulgated by the Cabinet ministries within three months after the Legislature referred the regulations to the committees. If the committees could not complete the review within three months, the review of the regulations would be considered completed and it would come into effect automatically.
ECFA is already seen as a failure, a poll last year found only 30% said it had improved their lives. Support for the pact is less than 35% (TISR) and the public overwhelmingly wants a line-by-line review, which the legislature won't give them and which the Ma Administration objects to. Naturally this complete rejection of the public's feelings will mean nothing at election time and the public will continue to vote the same people into office, because isn't my legislator great? He sent a bottle of whisky to my wedding.

It should be noted that the pact eliminates the protections that Taiwan has under the WTO framework, a friend pointed out in an email last week. This will gut Taiwan's trade and policy autonomy when facing China. As Tkacik pointed out in the article, PRC services firms, financial firms especially, are basically arms of the state. The opening in China is restricted to Fujian province and then with conditions attached, while all of Taiwan is open....and investors can bring their families.
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4 comments:

taipeir said...

I think that Taiwan has an unusual employment pattern. It's very easy to get a job in Taiwan, almost every street has work wanted signs.

Although there is some discrimination against older workers, they also can find jobs as labourers, cleaners, security guards etc.

So I believe that the relatively low participation rate is that simply there is a significant section of the population here who choose not to work due to the low wages and long working hours available in most jobs. They are subsidised by their families and I know quite a few cases personally.

Anonymous said...

You might consider blogging about the letter "Marine merger misguided" directly below the one you linked to in the TT about unemployment. It definitely has national security ramifications.

Anonymous said...

I don't see how Jason Hu could possibly win again, is anyone really checking for that tired old stunt queen these days? Might just be wishful thinking.

Anonymous said...

Its just amazing to watch this one go down. The way the KMTards are so desperate to push this through, without any review, should tell anyone here what type of pro-china sellouts these people really are.
Today's TT link