By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter

Rough sailing is expected in the 18th National Assembly as the governing and opposition parties are showing little sign of backing off from their positions on the ratification of a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States. The new legislature begins its four-year term today.

The main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) has objected to the ratification of the deal unless the government and the governing Grand National Party (GNP) accept its demands for renegotiations regarding U.S. beef imports.

``The new legislature should first address the FTA issue, among others. But it remains to be seen whether the FTA will be ratified in the early stages of the new Assembly,'' a GNP member said.

Safety concerns regarding American beef have been a hot topic in the country for the last month.

In early June, lawmakers will elect a new speaker and two vice speakers. Under an inter-party agreement, two positions, the speaker and one vice speaker, will go to the governing Grand National Party (GNP), while the remaining position will be chosen from among 81 lawmakers from the main opposition UDP.

Statistics show that the outgoing legislature was extremely active in handling bills. A legislator submitted an average of 21 bills during the four-year tenure. In total, 4,335 bills were passed; triple that of its predecessor.

The trend led to a question: what prompted lawmakers to so actively seek legislation activities?

Lee Hyun-chool, a director of political and parliamentary affairs at the National Assembly Research Service (NARS), told The Korea Times that three factors may help explain why the legislation boom occurred in the 17th parliament.

Lee pointed out that for 187 of the 299 National Assemblymen appointed it was their first time in the Assembly.

``The figure accounts for 63 percent of the total lawmakers; up from 54.8 percent four years earlier. There is no doubt that new comers to parliament are more active than their experienced counterparts, leading them to submit many bills,'' he said.

The senior researcher said external monitoring activities performed by civic groups also played a role in raising the number of bills submitted by lawmakers.

Lee said, ``The number of bills proposed by legislators is one of the core criterion that are used by watchdog activists when evaluating the performance of lawmakers. The external monitoring forced lawmakers to actively seek legislation as poor appraisal results, which would be made public through the media or the Internet, would pose a threat to their bid for candidacy in the following election.''

Political analysts pointed out that NARS, a parliamentary think tank created last year and benchmarked by the Congressional Research Service in the United States, could also have prompted the legislation rush in parliament.

Lee admitted that many lawmakers tapped into the internal think tank, which consists of approximately 60 staff members and researchers offering supportive legislative activities, when they came up with an idea for a particular bill.

``Many freshmen lawmakers are interested in the best legislation practices in advanced countries. Experts here also offer information regarding how the parliamentary legislation process works, upon request,'' said Lee.

hkang@koreatimes.co.kr