The Executive Yuan is pleased with Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng's visit with student protesters in the legislative chamber today, during which he appealed to the students to bring an end to their occupation soon, Executive Yuan Spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun said.
As for Wang's announcement that he will not convene any more cross-party negotiation meetings on the services pact with mainland China before a cross-strait agreement supervisory law has been enacted, Sun said it is not appropriate for the Executive Yuan to comment on this decision as only the president of the Legislature has the authority to convene consultations between legislative caucuses.
Given the agreement's importance to the nation's economic future and Taiwan's participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the Executive Yuan hopes the pact can be approved as soon as possible. "Taiwan has no time to waste," Sun said.
In addition, the Cabinet has cleared a draft bill for cross-strait agreements supervisory mechanism last Thursday and hopes the Legislative Yuan can act quickly to approve that bill as well.
Sun pointed to an opinion poll conducted by the National Development Council last week in which almost 58 percent of respondents believe that the students should vacate the Legislative Yuan and allow the congress to resume its functions. Also, nearly half of the respondents think the agreement should undergo an article-by-article review at the same time that the supervision bill is being legislated, while only 26 percent thought the bill should be passed before the agreement is reviewed. The Executive Yuan hopes the Legislative Yuan will listen to the public and move ahead with the agreement's review simultaneously with the institution of the monitoring mechanism.