President Ma Ying-jeou says he hopes to put two trade pacts with China in place before his second term ends in May 2016.
The president made the comments Thursday during an interview with the Nikkei Asian Review. He was referring to the trade in services agreement that Taiwan signed with China last June and the trade in goods agreement, which is still under negotiation.
Ma said Taipei and Beijing expect to hold another round of talks over the trade in goods agreement by the end of this year. However, he said the trade in services agreement has been stalled in the legislature since March due to a boycott by the opposition party.
Ma said that the opposition party has blocked progress on the agreements by occupying the podium in the legislature. He said that the opposition has occupied the podium 23 times since March this year, when the trade in services agreement was put before the legislature. He said that occupying the podium in the legislature is not helpful and urged the opposition party to use what he called democratic means when the legislature discusses the trade agreements.
President Ma also reaffirmed the importance of the 1992 Consensus, a tacit understanding reached between Taiwan and China. He said that during a recent meeting between former Vice President Vincent Siew and Chinese President Xi Jinping, both sides agreed that the consensus reached in 1992 is a basis of cross-strait peace.
Ma said that although he was unable to meet the Chinese leader at the recent APEC forum as he had hoped, Taiwan does not rule out the possibility of such a meeting in the future. Ma said that the two sides will continue to develop the cross-strait relationship peacefully.