By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter

The main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) rejected President Lee Myung-bak's proposal Tuesday to have the current National Assembly ratify the free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States before its four-year term ends on May 29.

The governing Grand National Party (GNP), meanwhile, asked National Assembly Speaker Lim Chae-jung to exercise his power to table a motion to ratify the deal, but Lim also turned this down.

The request was made by GNP floor leader Ahn Sang-soo when he met Lim at the latter's office later in the day. The speaker refused to accept it, saying that ``it is none of my business. It is up to an inter-party compromise.''

In a two-hour meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, President Lee Myung-bak and UDP Co-chairman Sohn Hak-kyu were unable to agree on the issue, presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan told reporters.

As a result, the ratification may be delayed until after the 18th National Assembly is inaugurated next month. In the new legislature, the GNP has 153 seats, while the UDP has 81 seats. Parliamentary approval of the motion to ratify the FTA requires more than a half of the cast votes.

Sohn told President Lee that his party will not be cooperate in the ratification unless the government prevents ``unsafe-to-eat U.S. beef'' from being imported by renegotiating with Washington, UDP spokeswoman Cha Young said.

``Sohn said the government should not allow the import of meat from U.S. cattle aged 30 months or older,'' Cha said. ``He also said the government should get a guarantee to be able to inspect slaughterhouses in the U.S. to endorse shipments to Korea.''

Accordingly, renegotiating the import of U.S. beef was absolutely necessary, Sohn told Lee.

But the President expressed a skeptical position toward asking Washington to hold renegotiations to empower Seoul to ban imports of beef from older cattle.

Lee said almost no meat from cattle older than 30 months will be imported, adding, ``Importers have already vowed not to buy and distribute unsafe meat.''

Hours after the Lee-Sohn meeting, Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon said the two sides reached a new consensus over the weekend by exchanging ``letters.'' Kim insisted that Korea will be entitled to halt beef imports if a case of mad cow disease occurs in the United States.

Unlike Kim's remarks, for the import suspension, Korea should prove that the outbreak of mad cow disease is critically threatening Koreans' health. Furthermore, the letters have little binding power, skeptics said.

``The additional outcome will play a great role in resolving public anxiety over mad cow disease,'' President Lee said. ``By showing your leadership, I want you to conclude the ratification.''

However, Sohn reiterated that even this will not appease the angry people, Cha told reporters. ``He cautioned of an administrative crisis unless there was a rock-solid ban on beef from the older cattle.''

Spokeswoman Cha said the new outcome falls short of the people's expectations and will bring about a more severe backlash.

Rep. Kang Gi-gap of the Democratic Labor Party said Korea has yielded too many things to the United States for the FTA.

Park Sun-young, the spokeswoman of the Liberty Forward Party, said the government failed to regain the country's ``quarantine sovereignty.''

There has been no case that a country exercised its quarantine sovereignty via Article 20 of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs on Trade), Park added.

kys@koreatimes.co.kr