By Kim Hyo-jin
Rival parties agreed Friday to hold a plenary session next week for the ratification of Korea’s free trade agreement (FTA) with China.
The floor leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) reached the agreement.
They will hold a consultative meeting with the government and the National Assembly’s foreign affairs committee to discuss the ratification motion before the plenary session, they said.
Saenuri floor leader Won Yoo-chul urged the NPAD to work together to pass the motion quickly, calling it a “final deadline.”
“We need an extra 20 days after the Assembly’s ratification to prepare the administrative procedures for implementation,” he said during a party meeting at the National Assembly. “The parties should step up efforts to put the deal into effect this year.”
The Saenuri Party and the government have called for a swift ratification to maximize benefits from the pact with its no. 1 trading partner.
The free trade deal, signed on June 1, will immediately eliminate tariffs on 958 products, and additional reductions will follow from January.
In addition, the FTA, once implemented, is expected to become one of the most significant trade deals signed by either country, boosting their annual bilateral trade by nearly 40 percent, according to the government.
If enforced within this year, the effect of the tariff cut will amount to 1.3 billion dollars and the increase in trade will reach 5.6 billion dollars, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF).
As a result, President Park Geun-hye has repeatedly urged the parliament to ratify the accord as soon as possible, saying that if the FTA is not ratified this year, there may be a potential loss of 4 billion dollars (4.59 trillion won) a day in exports.
“We sincerely hope the Assembly will ratify the accord Monday, so it can benefit the livelihood of people and the economy,” presidential spokesman Jung Youn-kuk said in a briefing.
National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa also urged the Assembly to ratify the FTA.
But the main opposition party has maintained that the government should first introduce support measures for agriculture and industries that will be adversely affected.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), the nation’s agricultural and fisheries industries are estimated to suffer damage of 154 billion won over the next 20 years. Rep. Shin Jeung-hoon however rebutted the government’s estimation, saying that the accumulated economic losses in the agricultural sector are only expected to amount to 1.42 trillion won based on a report from the National Assembly Library.
The NPAD wants measures such as sharing trade benefits between industries and expanding subsidies to compensate for losses in the agricultural and fisheries sectors.
NPAD floor leader Lee Jong-kul remains adamant over a possible ratification.
“We have yet to narrow the differences,” he said after the meeting. “It is only an assumption that it could be ratified during the plenary session.”
Lee Choon-suak, the NPAD’s chief deputy floor leader, also said, “With no changes in the ruling party’s stance, we would reconsider the parliamentary schedule.”