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The government¡¯s strategies for free trade talks with the U.S. are a shambles although negotiations went into their second round in Seoul on Monday. Government attempts to promote the deal looked distinctly patchy when some top government and ruling Uri Party officials were heard to say it would be no great loss if the two countries failed to clinch a free trade agreement, and two public hearings on the FTA were aborted.
Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook on an SBS TV program said Korea will leave the negotiating table at any time if conditions are unacceptable. Commerce, Industry and Energy Minister Chung Sye-kyun recently told a meeting there will be no FTA if it goes ¡°against national interest.¡± Twenty-three out of 35 lawmakers who protested against the way the negotiations are being run are from the ruling party, and rank and file are up in arms about President Roh Moo-hyun¡¯s decision to forge ahead with the deal. A Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry official said the anti-FTA faction has been gaining ground since academics formerly supportive the president raised objections to the trade pact.
Some government officials are unhappy that the Office of the Minister for Trade under the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry is in charge of the negotiations, saying an FTA taskforce should be a pan-government agency. One official complained that the office, set up as a negotiation channel, also draws up negotiation strategy. Government figures believe the reason is that it was Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong who persuaded Roh to back the FTA.
Over at the Finance Ministry, senior officials say they had no idea that the FTA talks would start this early, adding their ministry was kept out of the decision-making process because the trade minister persuaded the president in favor of the pact. A government official confesses to sometimes feeling as if he works for a different government when he discusses the FTA with the Agriculture Ministry, such is the lack of coordination. The Trade Ministry and the Ministry of Commerce, meanwhile, have serious differences over how far markets should be opened.
A recent Government Information Agency report on the FTA shows improbably rosy projections for export and investment growth and stresses the positive aspects. ¡°The people want to know why and how the FTA will be settled,¡± one official said. ¡°But the government just tells them to support it and promises everything will be fine.¡±
In a glaring example, public hearings scheduled to gauge popular reaction to the FTA were a hasty formality. One was scheduled for Feb. 3, a day before the government announced the start date of FTA talks. Then it was cancelled due to vocal protests from anti-FTA activists, who asked what the point was if everything had already been decided.
A second hearing scheduled for June 27 also fell apart when the government rejected a demand from anti-FTA participants to broadcast it on TV.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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