《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Tsai defends record on nation’s agricultural exports

By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter

Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen （蔡英文） yesterday said remarks made by Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） presidential candidate Eric Chu （朱立倫） — who said an election win for Tsai would harm agricultural exports — were “disappointing,” urging him to do more than just scare people.

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“The KMT presidential candidate is unable to show his party’s achievements from good governance [in the past seven years], or to present complete and constructive planning for the economy and industries. Instead [Chu] only continuously plays the ‘threat’ card,” Tsai told reporters during a campaign outing in Changhua County.

“The people of Taiwan would be disappointed,” she said.

Instead of making threats, Chu should brainstorm what he could do to improve the competitiveness of the agricultural sector in the international market, Tsai added.

The DPP, unlike the KMT, has a complete set of planning that covers exploring new markets, as well as enhanced management and planting for the agricultural sector, which could help it find more opportunities, Tsai said.

On Saturday, Chu said that during the DPP administration of former president Chen Shui-bian （陳水扁）, the government was “unfriendly” toward local farmers’ and fishermen’s associations by taking over the credit departments of 36 such organizations, making it difficult for the associations to expand their businesses.

Tsai said the credit departments were taken over by the government at the time because they were suffering from bad debts and excess loans, pushing them to the edge of collapse.

Tsai defended DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang （段宜康） in the face of accusations by New Taipei City prosecutor Huang Meng-shan （黃孟珊） that Tuan had tried to interfere in a case by pressuring the Food and Drug Administration （FDA） to add dehydrated gypsum to a list of permitted food additives after a food manufacturer was indicted for using the substance in its products.

Tuan denied the allegation, saying that he merely helped the food manufacturer to petition the FDA, as dehydrated gypsum is a legal food additive in many other countries.

“Tuan has explained the incident clearly, what he has done is what a lawmaker should do, and he is now preparing to file a lawsuit over the allegations,” Tsai said.

“He is handling the situation in a responsible way,” she said.

Tsai denied a report by the Chinese-language China Times that the DPP has lowered its expected number of legislative seats in constituencies in northern Taiwan after Chu joined the presidential race.

“The rumor is inaccurate,” Tsai said. “The election campaign as a whole has been stable for us and we are campaigning according to our original plans.”

“Our rival is making up stories,” she added.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES