hankyoreh

opposition party officials and members of civic organizations hold a news conference to call for legistration to protect them and a full revision of KORUS FTA in front of the main National Assembly building

By Hwang Joon-bum and Kim Oi-hyun　

With the Oct. 26 by-elections over, the ruling and opposition parties appear set for a National Assembly face-off over passage of the ratification motion for the South Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA).

At a Grand National Party (GNP) Supreme Council meeting Thursday, Chairman Hong Joon-pyo reiterated plans to pass the motion at the plenary session Friday.

“I intend to ensure that the KORUS FTA ratification motion goes ahead as scheduled,” he said.

Nam Kyung-pil, a GNP lawmaker and chairman of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee told reporters, “We have no other choice if the Democratic Party comes out saying it will break with its agreement to date and physically block the passage.”

The GNP plans to pass the motion at a Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee meeting Friday morning and attempt a vote in the plenary session in the afternoon. Some obsevers, however, said that the vote would be postponed to after early November.

“Some pointed out that it will look bad if the GNP moves to pass the motion as soon as the by-election was over,”said a key GNP official. “We may try to pass the motion at the committee in the early November.”

A subject of particular controversy is the government’s failure to provide the National Assembly with even the basic materials needed to examine the agreement. The opposition has demanded lists of the 296 translation errors from the Korean version of the KORUS FTA and the subordinate South Korean laws that will have to be amended, as well as the examination report for the U.S. law, a cost estimate with tariff-rate quotas, and measures to offset decreased in local finances following revisions to the automobile tax system.

But the Lee Myung-bak administration has maintained that these do not need to be provided.

The DP plans to respond to the motion in coordination with the other four opposition parties, including the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and New Progressive Party (NPP), as well as civil society groups such as the Citizen Campaign for Measures Against the KORUS FTA.

A general meeting of DP lawmakers Thursday saw a fierce debate over passage of the agreement, with one side arguing for the need to extract more compensation measures through negotiations with the ruling party and the other calling for a rejection of the early ratification for the sake of pan-opposition solidarity.

Analysts said the ruling and opposition party responses to the KORUS FTA have much to do with the political situation in the wake of the by-elections. The GNP needs to reevaluate matters after losing the most crucial of the by-election seats with the Seoul mayoral race. An early passage of the KORUS FTA ratification may be interpreted as an attempt to quickly recover the lost initiative.

In contrast, the DP is trying to hold on to the initiative it gained with the elections. Lawmakers who attended the general meeting made continued calls for blocking the ratification based on a perceived need to take advantage of the pan-opposition solidarity created with the election of Park Won-soon as Seoul mayor.

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