Cabinet approves withdrawal of KORUS FTA ratification bill
The Hankyoreh, Korea
Cabinet approves withdrawal of KORUS FTA ratification bill
29 April 2011
The Cabinet agreed to revoke a ratification bill for the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement on Thursday as multiple translation errors were found in the Korean text of the pact, the government said.
A new bill will be submitted to the National Assembly next month after fixing the errors, it said.
In December, both countries reached a final agreement focusing on U.S. demands that South Korea soften its automotive safety and environmental standards, three years after the original agreement was signed in June 2007. But the deal, known as the KORUS FTA, has yet to be ratified by parliaments of both countries.
Seoul has not, at least publicly, placed a time line for the ratification of the trade deal, but the withdrawal of its ratification bill is expected to delay the process by at least a few months due to the parliament’s month-long recess at the end of this month.
This marks the second FTA that has been blocked due to translation errors in its Korean version.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday the Obama Administration reiterated that it will soon submit to Congress a pending free trade pact with South Korea, saying similar deals with Panama and Colombia will be sent later.
“The Korean trade agreement has been negotiated,” Jose Fernandez, assistant secretary of state for economic, energy and business affairs, told a Webcast held as part of the State Department‘s “Conversations with America” video series. “It’s ready to go. So if the Korean one is ready to go, we‘re going to move now.”
