By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
South Korea needs to assess the damage that its free trade deals with other countries would cause in each industry sector in the future and map out proper countermeasures, including state compensation, a co-chairman of a government-private panel said Monday.
``We should come up with such countermeasures to convince people of the value of free trade agreements (FTAs) with other countries,’’ Euh Yoon-dae, a co-chairman of the Committee on Domestic Measures for FTAs, said in the panel’s first meeting at a Seoul hotel.
Euh, a former Korea University president and economist, said the government should also produce policies that could heighten the competitive power of relatively vulnerable industries, such as agriculture, so that they could turn the crisis into new opportunities.
He said it was a relief that a number of people did not buy the logics and ideas of some anti-globalization activists, who have blindly and exhaustively opposed the FTAs, including the latest one between South Korea and the United States.
``We thoroughly understand that there is some opposition,’’ Euh said. ``We would accept concerns based on reasons. But we would actively counter unfair criticism.’’
Opponents at home have protested against the South Korea-U.S. FTA as the governments of both countries are set to formally sign their bilateral free trade deal later this month.
Farmers have staged demonstrations against the additional negotiation while some unionized workers are planning to go on strikes in protest against the deal. But the government said it would go ahead with the plan to sign the deal formally on June 30.
Euh’s committee, co-chaired by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, is made up of 15 government officials and 12 non-governmental members. It was launched to draw up measures at home ahead of the implementation of the FTA.
Seoul and Washington reached a tentative agreement in early April after 10 months of intensive negotiations. But the U.S. demanded earlier this month that some parts of the deal be renegotiated so its new trade policy guidelines could be reflected in the final deal.
Washington has asked for additional talks in such areas as pharmaceuticals, government procurement, port safety and investment as well as labor and the environment, according to South Korean negotiators.