Opposition lawmaker cries foul over FTA
Korea Times | 11 April 2006
Opposition Lawmaker Cries Foul Over FTA
By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter
An opposition party lawmaker Tuesday raised suspicions that the government tried to fabricate the estimated trade balance over a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States in order to gain favorable public opinion.
During an interpellation session, Rep. Kwon Young-ghil of the minor opposition Democratic Labor Party (DLP) claimed that some recent reports of the state-funded Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) had been fabricated to justify the government’s efforts to push ahead with the free trade talks.
Ranking government officials, including Acting Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong, have often referred to the contentious KIEP report, which was first released in January, but revised in March, to stick out the government’s drive for the FTA with the United States.
Last month, I found out that the revised report did not contain any figures for the estimated trade balance over the FTA,'' Kwon said.However, when I requested the institute to submit the original report with the trade balance, I got another report dated March 23 that showed a trade deficit of some $5 billion.’’
Kwon added that at his repeated requests, the KIEP later offered another report which expected a trade deficit of some $7.3 billion with the United States after the signing of the FTA.
This messed up situation implies the possibility that the institute may have fabricated the figures in order not to harm the government's strategies to complete the FTA talks quickly,'' Kwon said.There is also the suspicion that ranking government officials forced the institute to provide fake figures to support the free trade talks.’’
On Feb. 3, South Korea and the United States made public plans to launch the FTA negotiations between the two countries.
The announcement has stirred much controversy, critics said, as the FTA is feared to seriously damage some part of local industries, especially agricultural and service fields.
