Supporters of cross-Straits trade pact to confront protesters

Thousands of supporters of the cross-Straits service trade agreement plan to march to the occupied "Legislative Yuan" Tuesday in a bid to end a two-week stalemate with student protesters who have been holding up passage of the bill.

The supporters, including employees from tourism, the aviation industry and students, plan to gather 2,000 people to campaign in the "Legislative Yuan" and call on those who continue to protest against the trade agreement to leave the "Legislative Yuan," Taiwanese news portal nownews.com reported on Monday.

The move comes after thousands of students took to the streets in Taipei on Sunday in renewed protest against the agreement. Sunday's sit-in was followed a clash between students and riot police outside the "Executive Yuan" a week ago.

The sit-in, which continued on Monday, began when the crowd, dressed in black shirts, gathered in streets near the office of Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou. While Ma has agreed to student demands that the trade pact be reviewed clause by clause and a mechanism be introduced to oversee all cross-Straits deals, he has refused to accede to later demands that the deal be withdrawn entirely.

Ma vowed Monday to deliver a draft to legalize the supervisory mechanism toward the cross-Straits service and trade agreement as soon as April 3, Taiwanese ETTV reported.

He expressed the authorities' hopes of talking to protesters about the trade agreement and legalizing the deal's supervision mechanism.

However, Ma reiterated that Taiwan authorities will not return the service trade agreement to the "Executive Yuan" for more discussion.

Chang Chia-juch, head of Taiwan's economic affairs authority said that students protesting against the deal run the risk of jeopardizing their future. He added that if the agreement fails to be enacted, it could make Taiwan's economic situation worse, the Taiwanese China Times reported.

He noted that the economic authority cannot accept any retraction of the pact.