FTA with South Korea within reach: chief US negotiator
The Hankyoreh, Seoul
FTA with South Korea within reach: chief U.S. negotiator
8 March 2007
Yonhap News. With an end-of-March deadline looming large, the chief U.S. free trade agreement negotiator with South Korea emphatically declared Thursday that a "high-quality" deal is within reach.
Cutler said, however, that both sides should work harder in the coming weeks to tackle "a handful of issues" which she said are expected to remain unresolved after an eighth round of talks that opened in Seoul Thursday for a five-day run.
"Spring is fast approaching and we are confident we will see our efforts in this negotiations become fruitful," Cutler told reporters after the first day of talks at a hilltop hotel in Seoul.
"I think we are poised to conclude a high-quality and balanced agreement."
Timing is very important, because U.S. negotiators must submit any FTA to Congress by April 2 for a mandatory 90-day review before a yes-or-no vote without amendments under U.S. President George W. Bush’s "fast-track" trade promotion authority, which expires on July 1.
The deal, if made, also requires approval by South Korea’s National Assembly where supporters outnumber opponents.
Cutler said she was confident that most outstanding issues will be able to be tackled in this week’s round.
"We enter what will be a decisive week for the FTA negotiations with optimism, determination and focus," she said. "With this mindset, I’ll continue to remain optimistic that this deal can be done by the end of this month."
Cutler said negotiators were encouraged by the strong will of their superiors to strike a deal and their frequent informal contacts that have helped clear many hurdles that blocked progress.
"Since our seventh round in Washington, we have held a lot of senior-level engagement," she said. "I believe all of these unofficial meetings have set the stage for the eighth round to be successful."
Cutler did not discuss any specifics but South Korean officials said wide gaps still exist notably in some farm products, including rice and orange. Rice is the Korean staple food.
She also said tariff reductions on automobiles will be one of top priorities in Seoul. The U.S. is demanding that South Korea cut its 8 percent car import tariff to the U.S. level of 2 percent.
The mood of the Seoul talks brightened after overnight resolution of a trade row over U.S. beef imports, an issue that U.S. officials have warned as a potential "deal breaker." Cutler again called for South Korea to "fully" reopen" its beef market to American exporters, saying the U.S. Congress won’t vote for a deal unless the issue is resolved amicably.
Last year, South Korea again allowed imports of U.S. beef but only boneless shipments, ending a thee-year ban prompted by the outbreak of a mad cow case in the U.S. It later turned back three shipments totaling 22.3 tons after bone chips were found in them.
South Korean officials defended their action as purely health-oriented but U.S. officials accused Seoul of using its quarantine regulations to block U.S. exports.
The beef row is not part of the FTA talks but U.S. officials warned that Congress would not endorse a deal with Seoul unless the issue is amicably resolved. In overnight negotiations in Washington, the U.S. accepted a South Korean proposal to turn back only packages that contain bone fragments.
South Korean officials said another round of high-level agricultural talks will be held in Seoul in the week of March 19 to address the beef and other contentious farm products. The U.S. is demanding that South Korea allow in bone-in beef as well.
The stakes are high for the two countries which did US$74 billion in two-way trade in 2006. Some studies show that an FTA would increase trade volume by 20 percent. For the U.S., an FTA with South Korea would be its biggest commercial pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.
