Opposition Leaders Meet To Discuss Taiwan's Democracy, U.S. Tariffs

TaiwanPlus News

Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang and Taiwan People's Party met on Tuesday morning to discuss the state of the country's democracy and how to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump's paused tariffs on Taiwan. While the ruling Democratic Progressive Party seemed receptive to some of the opposition's ideas, it criticized accusations that President Lai Ching-te is not taking the tariffs seriously.

Transcript

00:00Taiwan is facing a crisis. That's the message from opposition party leaders.

00:06Guomindang Chair Eric Zhu and Taiwan People's Party Chair Huang Guocang met on Tuesday morning

00:11to discuss how their parties plan to deal with what they say is imminent trouble.

00:19The KMT and TPP hold a slight majority over the ruling Democratic Progressive Party

00:26in the country's legislature. The DPP and the KMT are locked in a mass recall battle

00:33to remove each other's lawmakers for control of Taiwan's chamber.

00:39The opposition leaders say the DPP is more interested in increasing its political power

00:45than in dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs of 32 percent, which have been paused for 90 days.

00:56At the meeting, Eric Zhu proposed several policies, from tariff response measures

01:13to alleviating Taiwan's tourism woes.

01:31Meanwhile, the TPP's Huang is proposing a platform where opposition leaders can come together

01:37to exchange ideas and expertise on how to deal with impending challenges.

01:42We're together with the local government,

01:45we're together with the administration's representatives,

01:48we're together with the employees' representatives,

01:50we're together with the important students.

01:55We're together with a platform to make these voices come together.

02:02Huang also called for Taiwan's ongoing trade negotiations with the U.S.

02:08to include pushing for a free trade agreement,

02:10something sought by past administrations, both KMT and DPP.

02:16The Democratic Progressive Party says it's open to the opposition's ideas

02:20and welcomes collaboration,

02:22but it also pushed back against accusations

02:25that President Lai Qingde is not taking Trump's tariffs seriously.

02:29The DPP threw the ball back into the opposition's court,

02:44saying that it can help with Taiwan's tariff relief

02:47by approving a subsidy for Tai Power, the state electricity provider,

02:52a proposal previously slapped down by KMT and TPP lawmakers.

03:09While all three parties agree that the country needs to deal with the U.S.' tariff policy,

03:14each seem to have different ideas about what that approach should be.

03:18And while the tariff threat continues to loom,

03:21so too does the rift between Taiwan's opposition and ruling parties.

03:26John Su, Ryan Wu, and Leslie Liao for Taiwan Plus.

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