Korean politicians are bracing for a showdown over the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (KORUS FTA) _ not with Washington but among themselves.
The governing Grand National Party (GNP) appears set to railroad the bill on KORUS FTA as early as possible while opposition parties are determined to block it by all means, heralding another partisan clash.
Facilitating the parliamentary duel over the bilateral trade deal was the election of Barack Obama and the resultant shift of power from Republicans to Democrats, but the rivaling political camps here are so poles apart in all aspects of the free trade accord that it's hard to believe they are talking about the same thing.
For one, the GNP says the Korean National Assembly's preemptive ratification of the FTA would serve to pressurize the U.S. Congress to do the same. The opposition counters it would not work but only ``provoke'' Capitol Hill, which has revised similar deals with Colombia and Panama despite parliamentary approvals in the Latin American countries. The governing party also says FTA will provide a breakthrough to get over the current economic crisis, but their opponents claim the changed global economic environment requires a review of the agreement.
As we have said, all these arguments are failing to touch on the most fundamental point: Is the free trade deal so advantageous to Seoul as to warrant its hasty, unilateral approval?
The answer is rather negative, according to many analysts, who say there are several ``poisonous articles'' that need counteraction, including the clause allowing foreign investors to file complaints against the Seoul government when the latter's policies are deemed unfavorable for their operations in this country. Already, domestic farmers and some service sectors have been concerned about the market opening with little protection if the accord goes into effect anytime soon.
Some economists even maintain the Korean government should be positive in revisiting the bilateral agreement to make it a more balanced pact. Although Obama and his aides have complained about what they view as unfair auto trade between the two countries, they have yet to make any clear intention about renegotiation.
So it comes as all the more ridiculous that some GNP officials have recently ``leaked'' their behind-the-scenes contacts with some Obama aides, who reportedly said their boss wants the Korean parliament to ratify the deal first. Are these officials shrewd or spineless?
The FTA debate is not just about the conflict of national interests but about who would benefit and who would lose in a country. This is why the conservative U.S. administration of President Bush as well as the Lee Myung-bak administration is in favor of the deal, while the liberal U.S. Democrats and Korean opposition parties are against it.
Obama and his administration will even reopen the NAFTA which has been in effect for more than a decade if it hurts the interests of U.S. industries and the majority of the American people, namely workers. All Seoul has to do is do its own share of maximizing people's common interests, instead of some large export companies mostly affiliated with a handful of family-controlled conglomerates citing the ``trickle-down'' effects that have hardly been seen at all recently.
Good governance is not about a political battle at home but about maximizing its people's interests against external pressure.