hankyoreh

By Lee Se-young
　
Debate has intensified a decision remains imminent for the Democratic Party’s official position on the South Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA).
During its sixth meeting on Tuesday, the Democratic Party’s special FTA Committee worked to harmonize opinions on the content of its final report. This report reportedly includes a presentation of party opinions on the FTA, organized into arguments for rejecting negotiations for additional concessions and arguments for full renegotiation. Lawmakers have compared strengths and weaknesses of both strategies.
An official with the special committee said, “Because of benefits such as the ability to maintain consistency with the past party platform and the possibility of highlighting the administration and ruling party’s responsibility for additional concessions and linking that to a battle against the future ratification bill, the weight inevitably shifted in favor of the argument against renegotiation.”
On the arguments for full renegotiations, which has been espoused by Supreme Council members Chung Dong-young and Chun Jung-bae, among others, one benefit that was reportedly brought up was the possibility of emphasizing clarity as an opposition party and establishing a foothold for opposition solidarity. However, a number of committee members reportedly expressed concern that a change in party platform could lead to the burden of a loss of trust and generate criticisms of a “political offensive with an eye toward an FTA failure.”
Figures in the party leadership have also been vocal as the general lawmakers’ meeting approaches. Executive advisor Kim Keun-tae, who has previously shied away from expressing his position, called for the adoption of “full renegotiation” as the party platform on Tuesday.
In a statement, Kim said, “Left alone, the Lee Myung-bak administration will try to pass the KORUS FTA like the beef negotiations.”
“This is not a situation in which we can leave things to the Lee administration and debate the issue after the fact,” Kim continued. “We need to demand full renegotiation of all kinds of toxic and unequal provisions.”
Another Supreme Council member, Park Joo-sun, said during a question-and-answer session at the National Assembly Tuesday that active renegotiations were necessary on toxic provisions “if only to address the ‘balance of interests’ in a situation where the U.S. is calling for reamendment of automobile and beef provisions.”
In contrast, Supreme Council member Jeong Sye-kyun, speaking at a meeting of the council the day before, repeatedly expressed opposition to renegotiation, saying, “We must not tolerate giveaway renegotiations.”
Previously on Tuesday, President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama had a telephone conversation, where they agreed to work toward reaching an agreement on the KORUS FTA prior to the G-20 summit in Seoul on Nov. 11 and 12, the Cheong Wa Dae reported.
During the conversation, which lasted thirty minutes in the morning and was made at South Korea’s request, Obama said that he would send a working group on FTA negotiations if possible and that he hoped an agreement would be reached before the G-20.
With this, observers predict that negotiations between the two countries’ trade ministers will pick up speed. Analysts say there is a strong chance the KORUS FTA amendments will be completed at a Nov. 11 South Korea-U.S. summit at the Cheong Wa Dae.
“The U.S. beef importation issue is not on the table,” said a senior Cheong Wa Dae official. “As far as I am aware, they are discussing matters such as the relaxation of registrations on exhaust emissions for U.S. automobiles.”
“However, because negotiations involve ‘give and take,’ we are talking about what we can get from this,” the official added.
“We anticipate matters will be concluded at the South Korea-U.S. summit meeting on Nov. 11.”
　　
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