Foreign ministry puzzled over transfer of trade affairs

Officials enter the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade at Sejongno, central Seoul, Wednesday. According to the President-elect Park Geun-hye’s plan for government restructuring, the ministry’s function of trade will move to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy, the new name for the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. / Yonhap

By Chung Min-uck

The plan to transfer trade affairs from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to another ministry has caught officials there off-guard.

President-elect Park Geun-hye’s transition team announced Tuesday that it will hand over trade responsibility to the current Ministry of Knowledge Economy as part of a government restructuring plan.

The scheme is slated to take effect following the inauguration of Park’s administration Feb. 25 contingent on National Assembly approval.

“What shall we do about resource and economic diplomacy,” a foreign ministry official was quoted as saying Wednesday. “Does the decision mean that the foreign ministry should only take care of protocol and consular services from now on?”

Some officials, reportedly, urged Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan to return home earlier than scheduled to counter the plan.

Given this, Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan decided to return home earlier than scheduled to counter the plan.

He is on an overseas trip to countries in Middle East and Africa until Jan. 22.

The transition team is yet to reveal specific personnel exchange plans of officials currently in charge of trade affairs within the ministry.

Out of 900 officials working at the ministry headquarter, around 100 are engaged in trade _ the figure rises when foreign ministry officials working at overseas missions are included.

Those engaged in trade affairs are mostly diplomats who passed the state exam on foreign relations. Depending on the specific plan by the transition team, they could be moved to Sejong City, the new administrative town in South Chungcheong Province, where economy-related ministries will be located.

Reportedly, officials engaged in trade affairs are seeking to transfer to the political affairs sector within the foreign ministry to stay in Seoul where the ministry’s headquarters is located.

High-ranking officials from the foreign ministry held a meeting to discuss their response to the announcement.

Before the parliamentary approval, the ministry is to appeal to the transition team to allow it to keep as many trade-related affairs as possible.

“There is still a role that the foreign ministry should play in trade issues,” a transition team official was quoted as saying, Wednesday. “Concluding treaties is the foreign ministry’s unique function.”

His comment was taken to mean the foreign ministry is likely to retain its duty of sealing FTA deals with foreign nations.

“What matters is where the current foreign ministry officials working on trade affairs will be posted,” said a former foreign ministry official on condition of anonymity.

Regarding the new government’s restructuring plan, the former diplomat said “the foreign ministry lost a power game with the economy ministry since the president-elect stresses the importance of economic growth. Also, in the light of expertise, diplomats cannot become experts on trade issues since they move from political affairs to trade affairs very frequently.”

“The change is in the right direction,” said Kwon Hyeok-jae, a Samsung Economic Research Institute researcher. “If the trade part is transferred to the economy ministry, trade policies can get be harmonized with the domestic economic policies of the new government.”