With no U.S. beef in the Korean market, there will be no free trade agreement between Korea and the United States, said the chief U.S. negotiator, Wendy Cutler, yesterday in central Seoul where the five-day sixth round of talks started.
“Korea must fully open its beef market,” Ms. Cutler said. “We want to sit down with our Korean counterparts and discuss the matter with international standards as well as considering the health of Koreans.”
Ms. Cutler has continuously said beef was not a part of the free trade agreement, but had kept demanding less strict inspections on the U.S. beef.
After a three-year ban on beef imports from the United States due to a mad cow case, Korea resumed beef imports from the United States on the condition that no bones were included in the shipments. All three shipments, totaling 22 tons, since then had bone fragments and were turned back.
The U.S. representative, however, was energetic for the sixth round, which sets aside the four major areas: trade remedies, automobiles, pharmaceuticals and sanitary issues.
“I remain encouraged and optimistic that we can do this under the TPA [trade promotion authority] deadline,” said Ms. Cutler.
The TPA is an authority given by the Congress to the U.S. president and expires on July 1. The U.S. negotiators have to submit a deal by April 2 for a mandatory 90-day review by Congress before voting for or against a deal without amendments.
Investment, services, financial services and intellectual rights were discussed on the first day.
The controversial Korean medicine issue was discussed as part of the service sector, but, according to Ms. Cutler, she was not informed of any advances as of yesterday afternoon.
Korea and the United States were to recognize each other’s licenses for practitioners of Oriental medicine, which prompted protest from the license holders in Korea, who fear that their profession would be at risk when practitioners from the United States serve in the Korean market. Students of Asian medicine held a protest at the headquarters of an anti-FTA organization.
Negotiations on agriculture and textiles, two of the most sensitive areas, will only take place today and tomorrow.
Talks on the areas left out at this round will be held separately at higher levels.
“Ambassador Kim and I are going to have meetings not only on the three areas. We will have talks on all areas [during the sixth round] and will have high-level talks immediately following the sixth round,” said the chief negotiator from the United States.
Near the Shilla Hotel, where the meetings are taking place, at least 100 protesters, including farmers, clashed briefly with 1,800 riot police when they attempted to march into the hotel. No arrests or injuries were reported. Separately, National Assembly members representing the Democratic Labor Party launched a hunger strike. “Immediately stop the pro-U.S. FTA negotiations,” a lawmaker said. “The government is misleading the people and virtually giving up the country through an FTA. It must be stopped.”
중·일, 미국에 역량 집중'전략 배치' #'등거리 외교' 문제점 심각
by Hwang Young-jin
