South Korea-US FTA talks go past extended deadline to salvage deal
Yonhap | 2 April 2007
South Korea-U.S. FTA talks go past extended deadline to salvage deal
By Kim Deok-hyun
SEOUL, April 2 (Yonhap) — Top-level officials from South Korea and the United States struggled Monday to come up with major compromises in their final stage of negotiations on a proposed free trade agreement (FTA), with the deadline for the talks extended for the second time in two days.
"The talks are continuing after going past 1:00 a.m.," said Han Dong-man, a spokesman for the South Korean delegation, without specifying. "We will make an announcement if a result comes out."
The last-minute "marathon" talks between South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong and Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Karan Bhatia had been scheduled to conclude by 1:00 a.m. on Monday (1600 GMT on Sunday) in Seoul. The 1:00 a.m. deadline was set when negotiators agreed early Saturday to keep negotiating past a previous deadline.
A few hours after the extended deadline passed, a South Korean trade official, requesting anonymity, said a deal was put on the table and both sides are weighing whether they can accept it.
Still, both sides still have about seven hours before U.S. President George W. Bush must notify the Congress of his intention to sign a deal with South Korea under his "fast-track" trade promotion authority, which expires on July 1.
That authority requires U.S. negotiators to submit a deal by April 2 (Washington time) for a mandatory 90-day congressional review before voting for or against it without amendments.
U.S Trade Representative spokesman Steve Norton wasn’t immediately available for comment.
South Korean negotiators have reported "some progress" since Saturday, and both sides said they were doing their best to reach a deal in time.
"There was some progress," Bae Jong-ha, South Korea’s lead agriculture negotiator, told reporters Sunday. "I think a deal can be done before the deadline."
Officials have said a breakthrough in agriculture, which is said to be the most difficult of all to tackle, would affect other areas that remain unresolved, including automobiles and textiles.
On Sunday night, South Korea held an emergency meeting of economy-related Cabinet members ahead of the deadline, officials said, in what appears to be a sign that a deal was imminent.
A South Korean government official close to the talks, requesting anonymity, said South Korea is now waiting for an answer from the U.S. side after delivering the final terms of an agreement. "The ball is now in the U.S.’s court," the official said.
U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow, when asked by reporters whether there was progress in the negotiations as he entered the meeting room for the talks, replied, "I hope so."
Outside the conference room, a 56-year-old South Korean taxi driver set himself afire on Sunday to oppose the proposed FTA in front of a Seoul hotel where the talks were under way, police said.
The man, identified only by his surname Heo, was in serious condition at a hospital, police said. The protester shouted "Down with (President) Roh Moo-hyun dictatorship" before dousing his body with flammable liquid and setting it alight with a cigarette lighter, they said.
According to South Korean sources, key hurdles include a U.S. demand for South Korea to fully reopen its beef market following the discovery of a case of mad cow disease in the U.S. in 2003. South Korea, for its part, wants to protect its politically sensitive rice market.
As a compromise, South Korea is likely to accept the U.S. demand on beef in return for excluding rice from the deal, several government sources told Yonhap News Agency.
South Korean officials also reported headway in textiles, another key area of their concern.
"The talks are nearing an end and we have only to work on legal reviews of the terms of the agreement," South Korea’s Vice Commerce Minister Lee Jae-hoon said.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon spoke by telephone and reaffirmed the two countries’ political willingness to overcome remaining hurdles, South Korean officials said.
South Korean farmers, workers and supporters have been mounting protests against the talks, arguing that if a deal is signed, it would threaten their jobs and livelihoods.
If successful, an agreement will knock down tariff and nontariff barriers between the world’s largest and 10th-largest economies, which did US$74 billion in two-way trade in 2006. Some studies show that a deal would boost total trade by up to 20 percent.
For the U.S., a deal with South Korea would be its biggest since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada in 1994.
About 2,500 protesters gathered at a park in front of Seoul City Hall in downtown Seoul for a peaceful candlelight demonstration against the proposed deal.
