By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
South Korea and the United States might see the collapse of a free trade agreement (FTA) the two sides reached last month if the latter requests renegotiations unilaterally, the chief Seoul negotiator warned on Wednesday.
Kim Jong-hoon, a home-based ambassador at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade who led the free trade talks with U.S. officials, said Seoul cannot simply comply with Washington’s request for renegotiations of the pact.
``We reached a balanced agreement through tough negotiations,’’ he said. ``If the United States demands renegotiations lopsidedly, we will have no other choice but to scrap the hard-earned deal.’’
South Korea and the United States wrapped up their 10-month free trade talks in April to fortify their economic ties on top of the half-century-long military and political alliance. The FTA, scheduled to be formally signed by June, will take effect after parliamentary ratification by both sides.
Kim’s remarks came amid reported U.S. moves to retouch the just-concluded deal so as to have some provisions on its labor and environmental standards reflected in the agreement.
Last week, the U.S. Congress and the George W. Bush administration reached what they called a ``historic’’ agreement on a new trade policy, opening a window for the Democrat-controlled Congress to boost labor and environmental rights in free trade deals with foreign countries.
U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow, who explained the new policy to Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong in person last week, urged South Korea on Tuesday to reflect new U.S. trade policy in changes to the bilateral free trade pact.
He said during a forum at a Seoul hotel that the new U.S. trade policy guidelines would ``benefit both sides equally and would not alter the balanced result of our FTA negotiations.’’
In accordance with the new trade policy, future bilateral free trade deals between the U.S. and other countries must abide by basic international labor standards as outlined in a 1998 International Labor Organization (ILO) declaration.
Kim, the top South Korean negotiator, said the U.S. has not yet requested modification of the terms of the FTA officially. ``I guess the U.S. administration would also have a lot of anguish over the problem.’’
He added that the full text of the South Korea-U.S. FTA would be made public next week as scheduled, though the specific date has to be agreed upon between the two sides.