Opposition party threatens to scuttle KORUS FTA over beef
Donga | 12 May 2008
Opposition Party Threatens to Scuttle FTA Over Beef
The main opposition United Democratic Party yesterday said it will refuse to ratify the free trade deal with the United States unless both countries renegotiate their beef import agreement.
With the extraordinary parliamentary session ending May 24, prospects seem dim for the free trade accord’s ratification within the term of the 17th National Assembly.
The party reached the decision in a joint meeting of floor leaders and members of the parliamentary unification, foreign affairs and trade committee. At the National Assembly, they discussed how to respond to the beef deal and the public hearing on the free trade deal set for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Floor leader Kim Hyo-seok said the agreement is not worth discussing without renegotiation of beef imports. “Let me clearly declare the position of the United Democratic Party: [the agreement] will not be put on the negotiating table,” he said.
“We will use this public hearing as an opportunity to delve into what went on between the Korean Embassy in Washington and the Agriculture Ministry April 10-11 (when the beef negotiations began), and how the ministry’s position on beef imports changed over those two days.”
On the hearing’s first day Tuesday, eight people will testify including chief trade negotiator Kim Jong-hoon, former presidential secretary for economic affairs Jung Tae-in and co-representative of Korean Alliance against the KORUS FTA Park Seok-un.
On Wednesday, nine minister-level officials will speak at the hearing, including Strategy and Finance Minister Kang Man-soo, Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Chung Woon-chun and Broadcasting and Communications Commission Chairman Choi Si-jung.
The hearing had been expected to focus on compensation for the domestic industries to be hit hardest by the deal, given that the opposition party’s co-leader Sohn Hak-kyu and other proponents of the deal wanted ratification within the term of the 17th National Assembly.
The heated controversy over the beef deal, however, could see the hearing turn into a repeat of that on beef held Wednesday last week. Debate between the ruling and opposition parties will be no less fierce.
“It seems the [ruling] Grand National Party intends to delay dealing with the beef issue without doing anything and leaving it to the 18th National Assembly,” said UDP spokesman Choi Jae-sung.
“Under these circumstances, some confrontation is inevitable. We could walk out of the National Assembly. The 18th National Assembly might start with all bipartisan communication channels cut off.”
The ruling GNP was quick to blast its rival party. Vice floor leader Shim Jae-chul said, “Six UDP members of the trade committee have been changed. The members who knew the deal well were replaced, which shows that the UDP intends to block the agreement under the pretext of the beef deal.”
