|
||
TWN Info Service on Free Trade Agreements 04 September 2008 ``It is certain that the
Given that Best wishes,
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/09/123_30387.html By Oh Young-jin, Staff Reporter During an interview with The Korea Times, Lee Hye-min, Korea's deputy minister for trade and chief FTA negotiator, said, ``It is certain that the U.S. will not be able to ratify the agreement until the presidential election. ``That contingency is also being considered,'' said Lee, who was a key member of the Korean negotiating team in the lead-up to the settlement of the so-called KORUS FTA last year, confirming the difficulty Korea could face in getting the FTA ratified by the parliaments of the two countries, in the event that Barack Obama, the U.S. democratic presidential candidate, wins the November election. Arguably, it was the first
time that a senior In a separate interview with
a domestic radio station, Lee said that, if Obama calls for a revision
in the current agreement, it would create an imbalance, without specifying
what he meant. Obama, who is running neck and neck in opinion polls
with the presumptive Republican candidate John McCain, together with
the Democrats, are opposing bilateral trade pacts with President Bush repeatedly asked the Democrats-controlled U.S. Congress to ratify the KORUS FTA but without success. The Lee Myung-bak government
in However, Lee noted that there
are strong voices not only in the Republican Party but also among Democrats
for the early FTA ratification, saying ``It is a matter of when (the
FTA with Referring to the ongoing trade talks with the European Union (EU) during the radio program appearance, Lee said that a settlement is possible before the end of this year, explaining the outcome of the talks between chief negotiators. He cited automobiles, finance and legal services as primary areas of discussions that have yet to be settled. ``We stressed the importance
of products from the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (the industrial park
that is located in the North Korean city of the same name as flagship
of the two
|