US Sticks to Excluding Kaesong From FTA
Korea Times
US Sticks to Excluding Kaesong From FTA
By Seo Jee-yeon and Park Hyong-ki, Staff Reporters
21 June 2006
The United States does not want goods produced in the Kaesong industrial complex to be included in the free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea, a senior economic official at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said.
He said that if the U.S. accepts South Korea’s proposal of including goods manufactured by South Korean companies in the industrial complex in North Korea in the FTA, that would bring North Korea into the FTA.
The U.S. is interested (in the FTA) with South Korea, not North Korea,'' he told reporters.The U.S. does (however) support South Korea’s economic engagement with North Korea. We do hope these economic engagement activities would convince North Korea on how to run its economy.’’
He said that Kaesong is politically important but not economically a great matter, adding that issues of politics and economy have to be kept separate.
Still, he said that there is always room for further discussion regarding the issue.
Separately, President Roh Moo-hyun called on negotiators to speed up FTA talks with the U.S. in a "win-win" manner, an aide said.
The president instructed his Cabinet ministers and FTA negotiators to push ahead with FTA talks with the U.S. purely from the perspective of economic interests, rather than security issues, according to presidential economic advisor Chung Moon-soo.
"It is desirable that FTA negotiations with the U.S. proceed as soon as possible. But we should be careful not to sacrifice contents of the negotiations while racing against time," the president was quoted by Chung as saying in a meeting of FTA-related Cabinet ministers.
Business leaders from the two sides Wednesday also urged both governments to step up efforts to seal the bilateral trade pact talks by the end of the year, pledging full support for the negotiations.
We need timely approval process (for the success of the Korea-U.S. FTA) because thefast track’’ authority of U.S. President Bush runs out next year,’’ William R. Rhodes, Chairman of U.S.-Korea Business Council, said.
He made the comment in a press conference held on the last day of the two-day long Korea-U.S./U.S.-Korea Business Council at the Hotel Shilla in Seoul.
``Progress has to be made not to lose this opportunity. I hope some sort of agreement could be reached by year-end,’’ he said.
