Korea-U.S. FTA Talks Come Down to Wire

As the deadline for the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement neared, South Korea and the U.S. held ministerial talks until late at night on March 30 and attempted to reach an agreement on the remaining core issues, such as agriculture.

In the agriculture sector in particular, the two countries held a high-level conference in the morning of the same day over opening the Korean market to items such as beef and oranges, but failed to reach an agreement as of 6:00 p.m. on March 30.

But since President Roh Moo-hyun, returning from his tour to three Middle East countries in the morning the same day, heard reports on progress from Gwon Oh-gyu, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy, and Kim Hyeong-jong, the negotiation director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and gave advice on the overall context for the final agreement, it is expected that an agreement is likely to be reached by late night of March 30 or the very early hours March 31.

A high-ranking government official said, “There is little possibility that the negotiations will rupture. Lee Hye-min, the planning director of the FTA talks, however, warned against too-optimistic expectations during the briefing, saying, "The situation around the negotiations remains flexible."

Once the negotiations are concluded, the government will announce a general plan to compensate or subsidize for agriculture and marine industries that the FTA is expected to hurt.

The statement by President Roh addressing the nation asking for national understanding and support for the FTA talks, initially planned for April 1, might be postponed.

Once an FTA is agreed upon, the two countries will make public the text of the agreements in mid May and hold a signing ceremony after June.

The Korean government will present the text of agreement to the National Assembly in September or October, but considering the end-of-the-year situation with the presidential election close at hand, it is also likely that the ratification will not be made until the start of the next government.

Some media outlets reported on March 30 that the deadline for the negotiations would be extended, but the governments of both South Korea and the U.S. denied this.

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