By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said that it has never opposed free trade and would support the cross-strait service trade agreement if it was negotiated according to due process and based on the principles of reciprocity and fairness.
The Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily yesterday reported that Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) of the DPP said she “conditionally supported” the pact if the agreement “adhered to due process and contained a complete set of supplementary policies that would benefit Taiwan’s economy.”
Other DPP mayors and commissioners — including Greater Tainan’s William Lai (賴清德), Pingtung County’s Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻), Yunlin County’s Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) and Yilan County’s Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) — expressed the same opinion, with only Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) opposing the trade agreement, according to the report.
Asked about the DPP local leaders’ conditional support of the cross-strait pact and the difference between their position and that of party headquarters, DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) reiterated that there was no difference.
“The DPP has always insisted that the trade pact should not violate democratic principles and procedural justice, and neither should it fail to address the principles of fair competition, reciprocity, taking care of people’s livelihoods and safeguarding national security,” Lin said.
The Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration’s “black-box” — opaque —handling of the trade pact was obvious and the content of the agreement was also questionable, he said.
The DPP has unveiled its own version of the cross-strait service trade agreement, Lin added.