SEOUL (AFP)--South Korea's ruling party vowed Tuesday to push
ahead with ratification of a free trade pact with the U.S. despite
calls for renegotiation from U.S. trade envoy-designate Ron
Kirk.
"We must go our own way regardless of the movement in the U.S.
Congress," Grand National Party parliamentary leader Hong Joon-pyo
told reporters.
Kirk told his Senate confirmation hearing Monday that "in the
case of Korea, the current status quo simply isn't acceptable.
"The president has said, and I agree, the agreement, as it is,
just simply isn't fair and if we don't get that right, we'll be
prepared to step away from that," he said.
South Korea has ruled out renegotiating the pact, which was
signed in 2007 and cleared a subcommittee of its parliament last
month.
The main opposition Democratic Party said South Korea's
parliament mustn't endorse the pact since the new U.S. trade envoy
wants renegotiation.
But Hong said his party would seek approval from another
committee this month before the pact was submitted to a full
session of the National Assembly for ratification.
The GNP believes the pact is necessary to stimulate the economy
and argues that approval by Seoul will encourage the U.S. Congress
also to pass it.
The pact would be the largest for the U.S. since it signed the
North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico in
1994.
Ahead of his election in November, U.S. President Barack Obama
called the deal "badly flawed." He said it did too little to narrow
a huge trade imbalance in South Korea's favor in the auto
trade.
South Korea shipped about 700,000 cars to the U.S. in 2007 while
importing 5,000 American cars, official figures showed.
Some analysts in Seoul say the figures are misleading, since
they exclude more than 125,000 vehicles made by a General Motors
Corp. (GM) subsidiary in Korea while including vehicles made by a
Hyundai plant in Alabama.