Parties fail to move FTA bill forward

“I am not going to push anymore to hold a session today, causing a physical clash between members,” Rep. Nam Kyung-pil of the ruling Grand National Party, the committee’s chair, said outside the meeting room.

Rep. Nam and other GNP members of the committee couldn’t start the session because opposition members physically occupied the room. 

The ruling party has warned that it will pass the bill unilaterally to make it ready for a final floor vote if it has to.

Before the tussle at the committee room, leaders of the GNP and its archrival Democratic Party had pressed hard for a breakthrough, holding a series of meetings between themselves and their members. 

In a late night meeting Sunday, floor leaders of the two largest parties worked out a compromise, which includes some additional support measures for farmers and other local small and mid-sized firms expected to be affected by the FTA.

The two whips -- Rep. Hwang Woo-yea of the GNP and Rep. Kim Jin-pyo of the DP -- also managed to narrow their differences over a key issue in the Investor-State Dispute settlement rules.  

According to their agreement, Seoul will initiate talks with Washington to address concerns raised by the DP regarding the ISD system, and to have the latter recognize products made in Gaeseong, an inter-Korean industrial park in North Korea, as South Korean. 

The talks should start within three months of the FTA going into effect, according to the agreement. 

The U.S. Congress ratified its part of the deal last month.

Lawmakers of the DP, in a meeting Monday, refused to accept the compromise between their floor leaders and demanded that the parliament pass the FTA without the ISD clauses. 

The DP and other opposition groups claim that the ISD clauses have the potential to cause legal disputes with U.S. investors who want the Korean government to scrap its protection policies for small local firms and retailers.

The GNP harshly criticized the DP for the rejection, saying the opposition is refusing to make any concessions, while the GNP accepted many of its demands.

“The opposition’s demands are just too much. We can’t accept it,” Rep. Hwang said.

“The FTA must take effect on Jan. 1. A delay in ratification will harm the national interest.”

The DP and other opposition parties earlier agreed to cooperate to block any unilateral move by the GNP to ratify the deal. 

The Korea-U.S. FTA was first signed in 2007 and then modified last year. Korea’s opposition groups claim that the balance of interests swung in favor of the U.S. during the re-negotiation, which was initiated at the request of the U.S.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)