Lawmakers call for Gov’t to reconsider FTA with U.S.
Yonhap News, Seoul
Lawmakers call for Gov’t to reconsider FTA with U.S.
By Kim Hyun
16 March 2007
As free trade talks with the United States near a conclusion, calls for reconsideration have intensified among liberal South Korean legislators Friday when they vowed to boycott the government’s "arrogant" push to sign a deal without public consensus.
"A handful of negotiators are handling important issues directly linked to all the people’s livelihoods — that is an anti-legislative, anti-democratic scene that nullifies the functions of legislature," a group of 38 lawmakers said in a joint statement.
Officials from the two sides believe a free trade pact was now in sight. They reported significant progress in their final round of negotiations that ended Monday in Seoul. High-level officials are to meet in Washington next week to close the deal before the end of this month, a U.S. government deadline.
The free trade agreement, if reached, will require approval of a majority of the 296-member parliament. While supporters were largely tightlipped amid fierce protests by farmers and workers, dozens of critical lawmakers stepped forward to disrupt the deal.
They criticized the government, particularly the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Ministry of Finance and Economy handling the talks, of "closing the curtains" to push forward free trade while the country was sharply divided.
Farmers, workers and activists have staged mass protests at home and in the U.S., denouncing their governments for threatening their livelihoods for the sake of big corporations.
The legislative critics sprouted from a wide range of the ideological spectrum — from the conservative Grand National Party to the liberal Uri Party and its splinter groups and the Democratic Party as well as the radically progressive Democratic Labor Party.
The labor party chairman, Moon Sung-hyun, continued his hunger strike for a ninth day in front of the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae.
Their outspoken objection to a free trade deal with Washington casts a shadow over the prospects for prime minister-designate Han Duck-soo, former finance minister, who needs parliamentary approval to assume the post. Han has led the country’s initiative to push forward a free trade deal with the U.S.
The former health minister and a potential presidential contender, Kim Geun-tae, vowed to boycott Han’s nomination. The Roh supporter called the Roh government "arrogant" to try to sign the deal while he has only one more year in his term.
"If the (Roh) government intends to sign the deal by the U.S. deadline of late March, it has to first tread upon Kim Geun-tae to go ahead. I will deal with it clearly and firmly," he told reporters.
He lashed at the government for making the Korean people "the blind men who have to reckon with the elephant" with little information to work with.
