By Oh Young-jin
Staff Reporter
Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon said on Monday that the United States wants Korea to ratify the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (KORUS FTA) as soon as possible in order to help it reciprocate.
``There is consensus in U.S. Congress as well as the executive branch that the FTA should be ratified promptly and Seoul should initiate it through ratification at the National Assembly,'' Kim told The Korea Times during a telephone interview.
However, he neither denied nor confirmed whether the Obama camp made the request. ``It is inappropriate to reveal who said that.'' It is widely believed that only Detroit-based automakers and their congressional representatives are clamoring for an altered KORUS FTA but other industries are quite satisfied with the content.
His deputy and head of Seoul's FTA negotiating team said that no such request was made by the Obama camp. During a separate interview, Lee Hye-min said, ``Time and time again, I say no such request has been made by anybody from the Obam camp,'' Lee said.
Regarding reported calls by the Obama camp for renegotiations on the two countries' free trade pact, Kim said, ``My position is clear. No renegotiations.''
Under the pressure by the troubled automakers, a key constituent for the Democratic Party on whose ticket Obama won the presidency, the President-elect campaigned to fix the FTA with Korea. Korea sells hundreds of thousands of vehicles in the U.S. market per year, while U.S. automakers sell only a fraction of that figure. The Obama camp believes the trade deal is ``deeply flawed'' in Korea's favor.
Kim said that he would accompany President Lee Myung-bak on his trip to Washington for the G-20 meeting aimed at tackling the ongoing financial crisis. ``I don't think that we will have a chance to talk about the FTA during that trip,'' he said.