A group of legislators from the opposition Kuomintang and the People First Party yesterday visited the Mainland Affairs Council on the eve of their departure for the mainland to discuss farm trade issues.
The legislators want restrictions preventing private organisations from issuing certificates of origin and other quarantine documents to be relaxed. They want to be able to issue certificates without government authorisation.
The legislators, who will leave for Beijing today for a two-day visit and meetings with mainland farm officials, told the council Taiwanese farmers were eager to export their produce to the mainland.
But council spokesman You Ying-lung said the government must uphold the law on issues involving its authority. Since the power to issue certificates of origin was held by the government, it was unlikely it would allow private groups to conduct unauthorised negotiations on such an issue.
He stressed that the government had never restricted farmers from exporting their produce to the mainland, and had asked the semi-official Taiwan External Trade Development Council to serve as a window in dealing with the mainland.
