Congress report says US conceded little in FTA negotiations
The Hankyoreh | 16 May 2007
Congress report says U.S. conceded little in FTA negotiations
One clause on products made in N.K. called an insubstantial appeasement of S.K. position
It has been learned that the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of the United States Congress, concluded in a April 23 report that the establishment of a "Committee on Outward Processing Zones on the Korean Peninsula" was a concession on the part of the U.S. from its stance on products produced in North Korea, but that American negotiators yielded nothing of substance in free trade talks with South Korea.
The report said the establishment of a committee to deal with products produced in North Korean territory means a lot for South Korea, but that the U.S. "has conceded almost nothing over the mid- and short-term." It calls the committee a "halfway point" between the two country’s positions.
The CRS said that according to chief American negotiator Wendy Cutler, the committee would have to be approved by both country’s legislative bodies, providing means for the U.S. to maintain control over what happens with products produced by the South in North Korean territory. It said, however, that the U.S. would have to pay a "diplomatic price" if the next South Korean government hurries to include the South’s industrial complex in North Korea within the free trade agreement (FTA) and the U.S. gives the appearance it is trying to delay any move of that nature.
The report predicts that ratification of the FTA by Congress will depend on whether South Korea lifts import restrictions on American beef and that South Korea’s response to the World Organization for Animal Health’s (OIE) findings on the risk of mad cow disease in American beef, due May 20, will be key in that process.
The two countries signed an FTA on April 2. The U.S. Congress then passed on May 10 further regulations on future and pending trade deals, and lawmakers there have called for a revision of the Korea-U.S. FTA draft, a move which Korea has said it refuses to do.
