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Chilean ambassador to South Korea Fernando Schmidt said Tuesday in an interview with the Chosun Ilbo that it was a dangerous decision to delay a ratification vote on the free trade agreement (FTA) with Chile. He hoped that the vote would pass the National Assembly as soon as possible. The ambassador was so disappointed over the repeated failure to ratify the agreement that he expressed that disappointment no less than three times during the course of the interview.
What do you think of the failure of the ratification vote passage?
I am very disappointed to see the passage fail for the third time. Any ambassador would feel uneasy about the situation, considering that the Chilean Senate unanimously passed a vote on the FTA with South Korea.
What stance does the Chilean government take on the vote delay?
I have not yet received any official order from Chile. But I can clearly say that some in the Chilean government are very worried about the current situation.
What do you think will become of relations between Chile and South Korea should the ratification vote fail in the end to pass the Assembly?
I won't answer a hypothetical question. Chile ratified a vote on the FTA with the U.S. in four months and a vote on the FTA with the EU in three months. But we've been waiting more than seven months for South Korea to ratify the vote.
Do you think that the consecutive passage failures are very unusual in view of the current global trend?
It is the most unusual among the FTA-related incidents that have occured over the last few years. As we can see with the U.S. and Australia deciding Monday to sign a free trade agreement, FTAs are considered an important global trade trend. In this situation, Korea¡¯s decision to delay ratifying the FTA with Chile is dangerous.
Some Korean farmers oppose the free trade agreement between South Korea and Chile.
I want to point out three things. First, the FTA with Chile will allow Korean farmers to make inroads into the Southern America market. Remember that an FTA is a bilateral agreement. Second, Chile is not an agricultural country. The agricultural industry constitutes only 4.3 percent of the gross domestic production in Chile. Third, Chile is not an agricultural product exporter. Please remember that Chile agreed to export grapes, its main export product, to Korea for only a specific time period.
(Lee Ha-won, may2@chosun.com )
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