hankyoreh

The South Korean government’s plan for releasing the transcript of the free trade agreement (FTA) it struck with the United States on April 2 has been met with strong criticism from the National Assembly due to the fact that lawmakers can only read part of the entire document through computer screens without being able to take notes.

The agreement can go into effect only after the National Assembly ratifies it.

The government has deemed the draft a "third-class secret" and began to allow lawmakers to read it from April 20. However, they are not allowed to handle a paper copy of the document, but must read it through special computer monitors. In addition, sections on highly sensitive areas - customs on goods in areas including agriculture, the service and investment industries, as well as country of origin rules for goods - are excluded from the material released. The government has said it needs to negotiate further with the U.S. side on these matters.

Initially, the lawmakers may not take any notes on the agreement, which the government says will prevent leakage of the contents. But after receiving complaints from the lawmakers, the government took a step back and decided to allow them to take notes only on simple facts. The government said it would prevent lawmakers from prohibited notetaking by stationing four officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the computer room.

Many lawmakers were angered by these measures. Rep. Kim Won-ung of the pro-government Uri Party and Chairman of the Unification, Foreign affairs and Trade Committee of the National Assembly said, "The government measure to allow lawmakers to see the more-than-500-page English document only through a computer monitor comes from an intention to submit the data perfunctorily. In order to strictly verify the contents, the government should present the full written document. In addition, if the government doesn’t permit legislators to read all of the contents, the Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee plans to demand the full data in document form."

Rep. Jin Yeong, a member of the committee and of the opposition Grand National Party, said, "The government tells us not to take notes and to read the data only through a computer monitor. However, we expressed our position to the chairman of the committee that unless we are allowed to handle the actual documents and take notes on it, we won’t agree to inspect the agreement at all."

Kim Jong-hun, the chief negotiator to the trade pact with the U.S., responded to the criticism by saying, "When concluding the negotiations, the two sides promised to disclose the agreement to the public around May 20. As the agreement is a joint asset of Korea and the U.S., it is a breach of promise to let related data be leaked to the outside without the consent of the U.S.," he added.

Meanwhile, a special FTA committee of lawmakers within the National Assembly has agreed to accept the request that they only view the document through computer monitors.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]