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Interim ruling party leader stresses temperance
The South Korean government should not be in a hurry for a free trade agreement with the United States just to meet the deadline posed by the so-called "fast-track" faction, the head of the ruling Uri Party said in an interview with the Hankyoreh. Kim Geun-tae recently took the helm of the party for an interim period, replacing Chung Dong-young, who resigned to take responsibility for the party’s humiliating defeat in the May 31 local-level elections to opposition Grand National Party."At a time when the U.S. is focusing on fundamental and comprehensive issues," he said, if South Korea is hasty in the negotiations "it would cause strong outcry from such sectors as agriculture, finance, and service." South Korea and the United States completed their first round of talks on a free trade agreement (FTA) in Washington two weeks ago, making little progress in contentious areas. They are scheduled to meet again in Seoul next month. Both countries are hoping to wrap up the bilateral talks by June 2007, when U.S. President George Bush’s trade promotion authority, also known as the fast-track negotiating authority, expires. Before the deadline, the U.S. government can avoid Congress’ ability to amend the government’s decisions made at the FTA negotiations. Mr. Kim’s remarks came amid government efforts to finalize the economic deal with Washington as swiftly as possible. To start the talks, South Korea made a series of controversial concessions to the U.S., including reducing the quota on the number of screenings of domestic movies required in South Korean theaters and allowing the resumption of imports of U.S. beef after a ban due to mad cow disease outbreaks there. As for policies to curb real-estate speculation, Mr. Kim called on the government to hold on to its basic tenets and not risk a failure in trying to stem rising real estate prices. As for the government’s proposed tax increase, Mr. Kim stressed that it would be impossible without public consensus. "If we ask that people pay 50 percent of the taxes believed to be needed for additional economic growth, we expect them to agree," Mr. Kim said. But he warned that his Uri Party and the Roh administration lack the political power to make the push for the tax hike an easy one.
