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The Korea-U.S. free trade agreement bill has now passed the first stage of parliamentary ratification.

The National Assembly's trade committee voted on the bill Thursday afternoon and laid down the next stage of the approval process.

The head of the committee, Grand National Party lawmaker Park Jin, put out a restriction order Wednesday to block much-anticipated opposition.

There were riotous scenes when political parties faced off Thursday morning with the ruling GNP pushing to put the trade accord up for ratification and opposing Democratic Party lawmakers trying to stop the process.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. the Chamber of Commerce has published a report that says the U.S. would benefit greatly from the trade pact, calling for swift approval of the deal.

The free trade pact is expected to boost bilateral trade, which is already worth close to US$80 billion annually, by roughly $20 billion once in effect.

Arirang News