Diplomats: “FTA Should Be Ratified Immediately”

Korea’s legation heads from across the world, the field commanders of Korean diplomacy, have called on the FTA with Chile to be approved promptly.

The diplomats, who have returned to the country for an annual meeting of legation heads held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT), agreed at the general meeting on international trade on February 12 that the Korea-Chile FTA should be ratified as soon as possible.

The meeting was attended by 104 legation heads from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Middle East, including Hwang Doo-yeon, the head of the trade negotiation headquarters, as well as many other MOFAT officials.

The officials emphasized at the meeting that it is essential for Korea, of which 70 percent of its economy depends on international trade, to enter into FTAs to secure international markets and to improve productivity.

“With the approval of the Korea-Chile FTA stalled in the National Assembly, the market share of Korean exports in Chile began to fall continuously,” they said, “Major trade partners, international investors, and credit ratings agencies such as Standard and Poor’s have begun to question Korea’s willingness for economic reform and openness.”

“The longer the approval of the FTA is delayed, the more adverse the effect would be on job creation, the urgent task of the country’s economy,” they added.

“It is true that agriculture and the rural community will suffer during the process of trade liberalization,” they said. “It is liberalization, not the suspension of it, that would enliven the economy and makes protective measures possible for the rural community,” said the diplomats while repeatedly urging the approval of the FTA to be passed at the National Assembly on February 16 as scheduled.

Ji-Wan Cha cha@donga.com