Trade minister’s mea culpa

By Oh Young-jin

If Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon is fired, the ostensible reason would be for his attempt to save taxpayers’ money.

During a meeting with business editors Wednesday, Kim, one of the most seasoned trade negotiators, said, “The ministry’s budget is small so we decided to limit outsourcing when preparing the translations.”

Now the 59-year-old career diplomat faces mounting pressures to step down for about 200 translation errors in the Korean version of the free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union.

The agreement is about 1,300 pages, each one costing 200,000 won or about $200 per page for translation and bringing the total tab to about 260 million won.

One of the errors was a subsidiary translated into Korean as corporation, as well as misspellings and arbitrary translations.

Kim said that, although the full text is under public review, so far no errors have been found to merit renegotiation.

Under the pertinent international protocol, minor errors will be summarrily corrected through official notes. The existence of such protocol attests to the prevalence of such mistranslations, among other things.

For instance, Peru has asked for corrections in its Spanish version of its bilateral trade agreement with Korea so Seoul accepted its official note before the pertinent part was corrected as requested. None of the minister or officials involved faced calls for their resignation.

Arguably, the Korea-EU FTA posed one of the biggest translation challenges for the government, together with the Korea-U.S. FTA, which is pending in the National Assembly for ratification.

“I may have taken the job lightly,” Kim said.

But he couldn’t help pointing out in his defense that there are a lot of differences between Korea and Europe that cannot be adequately translated into Korean.”There is the job description of jurist linguistics that we don’t have,” he said, explaining that he refers to one who is versed not only in law but also in language, which appears to be necessary in the EU, the union of two dozen nations all using different languages.

After the translation mistakes were first uncovered in February, it was not by Kim’s office but a lawyer.

He said that he couldn’t spare himself the responsibility nor has he any intention of doing so, if there is any delay in the effectuation of the Korea-EU FTA, scheduled for July 1.

“My resignation cannot be ruled out, if it helps smooth the passage of the agreement by the National Assembly. At least three editors had asked Kim whether he will hold himself responsible and step down. Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik previously replied that Kim could be held accountable, while testifying to a panel of lawmakers.

“I want to keep my obligation as a public servant,” the trade minister said. “I can’t step down just because I feel under pressure.”

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) demanded that Kim be fired for the errors, arguing that they well illustrate the ineptitude of the nation’s diplomatic corps.

He said that the absence of prompt action by the National Assembly may put back the effectuation of the agreement.

“Any delay in the National Assembly action will raise the eyebrows in Europe and likely cause a delay in effectuation due to conflicting schedules among member nations,” Kim said.

Kim has been involved in virtually all of the 15 FTAs that have been signed by Korea or are under negotiation.

He was promoted to trade minister at the end of the Roh Moo-hyun administration for his contribution to the settlement of the Korea-U.S. FTA, and is the only minister who has been retained by President Lee Myung-bak.

한 EU FTA 자체 번역으로 2억5천 만원 절감 할 뻔

김종훈 통상교섭본부장은 수요일 경제부장들과 의 간담회에서 한 EU FTA의 조속한 국회비준안 처리를 위해서라면 사퇴할 용의가 있음을 분명히 했다.

김본부장은 “책임을 회피할 생각은 없다,” 라며 야당이 요구한 사임요구에 대해 “비준안 통과를 위한 일이라면 좋은 방법” 이 될 수 있다고 말했다.

그는 번역오류로 인해 비준안 통과가 늦어진다면 “중대한 실수” 이며 지난 두 달 동안 추가 오류를 찾는 노력을 기울여 더 이상 오류는 없을 것으로 예상했다.

그는 협정 안이 1,300 페이지에 달하며 각 페이지 당 번역비용을 이 십 만원으로 계산하면 총 2억5천 만원 이상이 들었을 것이라며 예산절감차원에서 외부용역을 맡기지 않았다고 주장했다.

그는 또 전문가들도 완벽한 번역이라는 것은 불가능 하다는 것이 중론이라며 페루도 우리나라와의 FTA 스페인어본 번역본에서 오류가 있었지만 국제관례에 따라 수정을 요청해 우리측이 이를 받아 들였고 이로 인해 장관이 사임하지는 않았다고 말했다.