By Bernama,
Seoul : South Korea’s ruling party is pushing for prompt parliamentary ratification of a free trade deal with Washington, despite ongoing opposition from liberal parties and civic groups here, Yonhap news agency reported.
After securing a majority in the National Assembly via last week’s elections, the conservative party of President Lee Myung-bak has been pushing to open an extraordinary parliamentary session next month to settle several bills including the motion to ratify the Korea-U.S. free trade deal which has been pending for seven months.
Free trade agreement is likely to be one of the key discussion issues during President Lee Myung-bak’s upcoming summit with U.S. President George W. Bush, with Seoul’s reluctance to import U.S. beef — although not on the FTA agenda — becoming a precondition for the deal.
The prospect of ratification has brightened following the ruling Grand National Party’s (GNP) grab of 153 seats in the 299-member parliament in last week’s elections. The main opposition party, meanwhile, won a mere 81 seats in the incoming parliament.
Lee’s move to speed up ratification has been fueling fierce opposition from farmers’ groups and anti-FTA civic groups here.
Since the conclusion of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement last year, farmers here have demanded sufficient compensation and countermeasures to minimise possible negative impact from the FTA, fearing they will not be able to compete with cheap imported products.
Beef imports are also causing controversy as backbones, spinal cords and intestines — parts consumed by many South Koreans — are said to contain a high ratio of specified hazardous materials, a main factor for mad cow disease.
While the United States demands that Seoul allow unimpeded imports of all U.S. beef as a bargaining chip against the congressional protest, South Korean sentiment remains unfavourable.
But business groups here are demanding prompt ratification of the agreement, complaining that the delay is causing great losses to South Korean exports of manufactured goods to the world’s biggest market.