By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
With the United States said to be poised to formally suggest ``renegotiations’’ -- or ``additional negotiations’’ -- for a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea soon, public eyes are now focused on the strategies of both sides and the scope of the extra talks.
South Koreans seem to be still reluctant to hold -- or just want to minimize -- talks on the free trade deal tentatively reached in April. But it could become ``renegotiations’’ if the Americans demand more concessions in areas other than labor and environment.
U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) spokesman Stephen Norton said late last month that the U.S. expects additional talks to begin in early June, when the U.S. lets South Korea see the trade documents after they have undergone a legal review by the George W. Bush administration and Congress.
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, also said in a radio program last week that Washington is expected to formally suggest additional negotiations of the free trade pact.
Washington is expected to call on Seoul to strengthen labor and environment regulations, on which the new U.S. trade policy agreed upon between Congress and the administration focuses, and press for more concessions in the automobile, agricultural and other sectors.
South Korea and the U.S. concluded the free trade deal in April and are now doing what is called a ``legal scrub’’ of the draft text. President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President Bush would have to sign the final text in June and send it to their legislatures for ratification.
U.S. officials said the new trade policy should be reflected in the tentatively struck deal through additional talks. South Korean officials first dismissed the possibility of renegotiation vehemently. But they changed their attitudes later to acknowledge the inevitability of some ``additional talks.’’
``We’ll have to see whether the balance of interest, reached through previous negotiations, can be maintained and even more fortified through extra talks, if the U.S. formally offers further talks,’’ said Kim, the chief South Korean negotiator.
Kim’s U.S. counterpart, Wendy Cutler, said last Friday that putting the new U.S. trade policy into the South Korea-U.S. FTA does not constitute ``renegotiations’’ as some South Korean opponents argue.
``What we are looking to do is to clarify and add the provisions agreed between the U.S. administration and Congress,’’ she said. ``We are not seeking a renegotiation. We are not seeking in any way to alter the balance of the agreement.’’
South Korean officials hope that what the U.S. wants to change would be reflected in the final text of the deal in such forms as annexes through the additional talks without touching the main chapters.
But some local news media reported that Washington is likely to call for actual renegotiations not only in the areas of labor and environment but in such areas as government procurement, investment and intellectual property right (IPR) including the patents of medical supplies.
With the U.S. not yet officially clarifying what kind of changes it wants, the U.S.-imposed deadline for the official signing also puts pressure on South Korea. Cutler reaffirmed that under U.S. laws, the signing of the agreement will have to take place by June 30.
South Korean negotiators plan to counter the U.S. offensives with their own demands including a new visa quota for Korean professionals and IPR of pharmaceuticals, if their American counterparts come out with excessive demands, according to sources.