35 Uri lawmakers urge Bush to include Kaesong goods in FTA
Korea Times
35 Uri Lawmakers Urge Bush to Include Kaesong Goods in FTA
By Lee Jin-woo, Staff Reporter
22 August 2006
A group of 35 governing Uri Party lawmakers Tuesday called on U.S. President George W. Bush to include products from an inter-Korean industrial park in a free trade agreement (FTA) between South Korea and the U.S.
In a letter sent to Bush, Rep. Song Young-gil, who heads the National Assembly’s ad hoc panel on the FTA, and other legislators said the U.S. should not exclude products made in the inter-Korean border city of Kaesong considering the significant symbolic meaning of the joint business project between the two Koreas.
The lawmakers emphasized the fact that the Kaesong Industrial Complex is different from an ordinary group of factories, but has a peace-keeping role on the divided peninsula, which is still technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War was ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
We are deeply concerned about the possible impact of the negative stance taken by the U.S. negotiators during the first and second rounds of FTA talks,' the letter said.We hope the U.S. will take a long-term perspective at the forthcoming third round of negotiations and listen to our request carefully.’’
The lawmakers also reminded Bush of the U.S. government’s Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZs) program, which greatly benefited Middle Eastern countries that signed peace treaty with Israel. Introduced in 1997, the QIZs program has applied conditions of U.S.-Israel FTA to imported products from Jordan and Egypt, they said.
The U.S. Trade Representative also self-praised its QIZs program in the July issue of its news letter, Trade Delivers, saying ``The U.S. is committed to expanding trade in the region and providing economic hope for millions in the Middle East,’’ the lawmakers said.
In an interview aired in the U.S. on Sunday, Susan Schwab, the U.S. Trade Representative, however, reiterated her government’s position that the Korea-U.S. FTA would not include products from Kaesong.
Washington has been reluctant about accepting goods made in the North’s territory with which it has no diplomatic ties. The ongoing standoff over the communist country’s nuclear weapons programs has also made the U.S. skeptical about accepting North Korean products in the FTA.
A total of 13 South Korean firms operate factories with cheap but skilled North Korean labor in the pilot zone of the Kaesong complex, which was made available in June 2004. Ten other firms are constructing factories in another pilot zone that opened last September.
