No high-level talks are planned for the near future to resolve outstanding issues that are holding up talks between South Korea and the United States for a free trade pact, a government official said Monday.
Bae Jong-ha, head of agriculture-sector negotiations, said speculation about an imminent "big deal" to iron out sticking points could not be confirmed, and hinted that such a deal will probably not take place until the seventh free trade agreement (FTA) talks planned for Feb. 11-14 in Washington. He also said Seoul is not planning to send a revised offer of tariff concessions to Washington.
Agriculture is a major obstacle in the trade talks, with South Korea insisting on protection for its farmers. The U.S. is calling for full dismantling of tariffs.
"Now is not the right time to hold high-level talks to seek compromises," the director general of international affairs at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said. Bae did not elaborate except to say that past deals involving major trade issues were sometimes resolved by direct talks between presidents of respective countries.
He then said that judging by past FTAs, last-minute marathon negotiations may take place.
"In the Canada-Chile FTA deal, talks dragged on without stopping for a month, while in the U.S.-Australia pact, last-minute intensive negotiations took place for three weeks," he said. South Korea and the United States have held six rounds of negotiations so far.
Of the 1,531 items that are covered in the agriculture segment of the FTA negotiations, South Korea has set aside 235, including rice, as sensitive produce that should be excluded from the FTA.
Seoul and Washington are also at odds over roughly 260 other types of produce.
"On 260 goods, the U.S. wants all tariffs to come down within five years, while South Korea is thinking in terms of 10 years and beyond," the official said.
In addition, the agriculture expert said there were considerable differences involving special safeguard measures that can be taken if a sudden surge of imports hurts local producers.
"South Korea wants an effective safeguard rule, while Washington maintains that any such measures should be maintained for a limited period of time so as not to conflict with the spirit of the FTA," he said.
Regarding products like rice and beef, Bae said both sides are steadfastly adhering to their initial positions. Seoul warned that the inclusion of rice in the FTA would be a deal breaker. It said talks could be held on lowering tariffs for beef, but that it would be unacceptable to do away with all duties. The country currently levies 40 percent tariffs on all beef imports.
He said Seoul is open to resolving all outstanding issues on sanitary and phytosanitary conditions that have held up imports of U.S. beef. South Korea has technically allowed American beef back into the country since late last year, but the latest shipments were rejected because they included bone fragments.
Under a deal ironed out in January 2006, Seoul agreed to import de-boned U.S. beef from cattle less than 30 months old.
South Korea and the United States want to seal an FTA by the end of March so it can be ratified by the lawmakers of both sides in the first half of this year.
Seoul, Jan. 22 (Yonhap News)
No high-level meeting planned to resolve U.S. FTA issues |
