S Korea, US publicize full text of FTA, reignite controversy
2007/05/25
S. Korea, U.S. publicize full text of FTA, reignite controversy
SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) — South Korea and the United States on Friday released the full text of their free trade agreement, a disclosure that reignited controversy here as critics say the accord will only benefit American companies, while destroying the lives of Korean farmers and other workers.
Anti-free trade activists and opposition lawmakers accused their government of giving the U.S. a one-sided advantage under the agreement, which the two sides reached early last month after 10 months of grueling negotiations.
South Korean officials have said the pact, which has yet to be ratified, is a successful agreement and will help upgrade the nation’s economy. But opponents raised a number of concerns about provisions of the agreement, saying they will make all-out efforts to nullify what they call the "unfair deal."
Opponents, including the minor Democratic Labor Party and the Korean Alliance Against the Korea-U.S. FTA — a nationwide organization consisting of farmers, union workers and students — renewed their pledge to step up campaigns to scrap the deal before the National Assembly votes on it.
Rep. Roh Hoe-chan of the minor party blasted the government for "hiding the truth from the people," citing what he calls unjust provisions in safeguard measures and an issue surrounding an industrial park in North Korea.
According to the full text, South Korea and the U.S. agreed to exercise safeguard measures on most goods only one time during the tariff phase-out period, which critics argue will further harm South Korean exporters.
While South Korean officials have also said the agreement will open a window for the U.S. to give special tariff treatment to goods made in an industrial park in North Korea, the text shows the pact requires any industrial complex outside South Korea to follow international labor standards, a provision that will probably dash South Korean hopes.
"Starting next week, we will hold a series of press conferences to make an assessment over the agreement," said Lee Hae-young, an international relations professor at Hanshin University. Lee has also served as a senior researcher at a nationwide anti-free trade organization.
Besides the resurgence of criticisms at home, South Korean negotiators have been under pressure to sit down again with their U.S. counterparts to make changes to some parts of the agreement to reflect Washington’s new trade policy that requires any free trade deal to include tougher labor and environmental regulations.
"So far today, the U.S. hasn’t officially made any request for renegotiation," Ambassador Kim Jong-hoon, South Korea’s chief negotiator in free trade talks with the U.S., told reporters after publicizing the text.
However, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab strongly indicated the likelihood of renegotiation.
"This draft text does not yet include provisions that reflect the recently-concluded agreement between Congress and the administration on labor rights, environmental safeguards and other issues that have created a new, bipartisan path forward on trade," Schwab said in a statement.
"The administration and Congress are still in the process of converting this agreement into formal text," she added. "When that process is complete, the U.S. looks forward to working together with Korea to reflect that agreement."
Separately, Rep. Kim Won-woong of South Korea’s pro-government Uri Party, who is the chairman of a parliamentary committee on unification, foreign affairs and trade, said the National Assembly is considering holding a parliamentary hearing in July or August on the free trade deal after the signing of the agreement, expected to take place by the end of June.
