By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
Opposition parties criticized what they call poor negotiation of a free trade agreement between Korea and the United States, while the pro-government Uri Party welcomed it Friday when the government released its full text.
The criticism focused on the safeguard measures whose implementation is limited to once and the problematic process of the text release, particularly the Korean version.
``The text says the safeguard measure can be made only one time in 10 years, which was not known before. We need to thoroughly study to see whether the FTA would be beneficial to the national interest,'' said Na Kyung-won, spokeswoman of the main opposition Grand National Party.
She also said the government showed only the English text to lawmakers late in April, while releasing both Korean and English texts to the public Saturday, which she believed prevented the National Assembly from properly keeping an eye on the government.
Rep. Yoon Kun-young of the GNP, who assumes the party representative of the Assembly's FTA committee, said, ``It would be much better if the government showed us the Korean text in April. The government ignored the people's right to know.''
The Democratic Labor Party echoed the same view with the GNP.
Meanwhile, the Uri Party said there is no problem with the safeguard and the text release process of the FTA.
Rep. Song Young-gil of the Uri Party, who plays the party representative of the FTA committee, said, ``The regulation of the safeguard measures are favorable for our industrial products and textile products.''
He further said that the one-time safeguard measure applies according to items and it doesn't apply to the 30 major sensitive products, and that it is overall balanced.
Minor opposition Democratic Party and a new party consisting of defectors from the Uri Party took a cautious stance as it will take time to fully understand the 1,400-page text.