US President-Elect Seeks Revision of KORUS FTA

Trade issues are one area where there has been a significant difference of opinion between Barack Obama of the liberal Democratic Party and John McCain from the conservative Republican Party. At a conference in Washington last week, Frank Jannuzi, a Korea policy advisor for U.S. President-elect Obama, reiterated his commitment to free trade.

By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter

Trade issues are one area where there has been a significant difference of opinion between Barack Obama of the liberal Democratic Party and John McCain from the conservative Republican Party.
At a conference in Washington last week, Frank Jannuzi, a Korea policy advisor for U.S. President-elect Obama, reiterated his commitment to free trade.

But he expressed strong reservations about some aspects of the pending Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA). His comments suggest that the Obama administration would favor revising and renegotiating portions of the agreement before giving it full support.

In addition to his role as a Korea policy advisor to the Obama camp, Jannuzi has been serving as a senior East Asia specialist for the majority staff of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a post he's held for the past 11 years.

``It cannot be a good thing that the United States exports 5,000 automobiles a year to Korea and Korea exports 700,000 automobiles here. And the price for this is not paid, with all due respect, by politicians. It's paid by American workers,'' Jannuzi said last week at a Washington conference organized by the Korea Economic Institute. ``So, we need to do some work.''

Senator Obama has said that the KORUS FTA does not ensure effective market access for certain key manufacturing and agricultural products, the advisor said.
``And he cannot support it in its current form. That said, there is no denying that Senator Obama supports free trade. He is not a protectionist. He wants to deepen the U.S.-Korean economic relationship. And I personally hope that we will find ways to move forward on the trade agenda under the Obama administration.
``I am not an economic specialist. But it doesn't take one to understand the importance of the U.S.-ROK economic relationship. It is the seventh largest trading relationship that the United States has in the world. We need to do more to cement our economic ties which are in fact mutually beneficial.''

In addition to the economic issue, Jannuzi also spoke on the security and cultural aspects of the Korea-U.S. relationship.
The advisor said President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph Biden, as well as Senator McCain, want to bring to life a 21st century vision for the Korea-U.S. alliance.

``President Lee Myung-bak has articulated that vision. So what does a 21st century alliance mean? My own view is that this reflects the fact that what once was a uniquely and exclusively bilateral alliance, oriented against a common threat, is becoming an alliance with a broader purpose, one that is based on common interest and common values as much as a single defining common threat.''

Jannuzi said the first challenge of the alliance remains deterring North Korean aggression and accomplishing denuclearization of the peninsula. ``But other challenges await: promoting peace and security on the peninsula with the goal of formally ending the Korean War and setting the stage for the normalization of relations and, ultimately, reunification,'' the advisor said.

``But the challenge of cooperating on transnational threats: terrorism, non-proliferation, energy-security, trafficking in persons, pandemics. Some of these are non-traditional threats, for which the Korea-U.S. alliance is well-positioned to contribute to global solutions.''

The advisor said the two nations will also need to work together to manage the emergence of China as a major power
``China's emergence, to me, is the defining event of the 21st century. How it is managed is going to set the stage for peace, stability and economic growth ― or instability, rivalry, nationalism, zero-sum politics. So we need to get it right, and the U.S.-Korea alliance is part of that process.''

Jannuzi noted that as a symbol of the close relationship, U.S. Congress recently granted Korea NATO status, as a U.S. treaty ally with respect to access to U.S. defense goods and services. ``This is long overdue and is an appropriate response to Korea's history of reliability as an ally. And I am delighted the U.S. President signed it into law.''

He also noted the cultural and tourism links as well as the educational links. In addition to two million-plus Korean-Americans in the United States, there are hundreds of thousands of Koreans who visit the United States every year, Jannuzi said.
``Senator Biden was a leader in the Senate in trying to get Korea into the visa-waiver program and in spurring the administration to make necessary policy decisions to bring Korea into that, as President Bush now has done, finally this year,'' the advisor said.

``This is a very important development. I've been to Seoul many, many times ― dozens of times ― and every time I go by the embassy, I see long lines of people standing out for hours despite the best efforts of our embassy staff to process them expeditiously. The visa waiver program is going to help a lot.''
He said that on North Korea, ``Senator Obama, in an area of a clear difference with Senator McCain, believes we must have principled, direct diplomacy to complement the six-party process.''

``We tried the McCain-Bush approach for five years. But what we got was North Korea that withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, reprocessed spent fuel, exported nuclear know-how abroad, tested long-range missiles, quadrupled its stockpile of fissile material, and ultimately tested a nuclear weapon. This is the record of what happens when you disengage from challenges.''

michaelha@koreatimes.co.kr