South Korea-US FTA takes effect to praise and protest
2012-03-15 11:32:16
A long-delayed free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea took effect Thursday, winning warm praise from the two countries' leaders but stirring scattered protests in Seoul.
The agreement means export-dependent South Korea now has trade pacts with the world's two biggest economic areas, after a deal with the European Union went into force last July.
The pact, which scraps duties on thousands of items, is the biggest for the United States since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.
US President Barack Obama called his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-Bak to welcome the beginning of the agreement, which analysts say will boost exports by billions of dollars a year and strengthen the longstanding alliance.
Lee told Obama the deal will be a "good model" for global free trade and strengthen economic development and bilateral ties, according to his office.
The agreement was originally signed in July 2007 but was approved by the US Congress only last October, after a partial renegotiation to address US auto industry complaints.
South Korea's parliament approved it last November despite vehement protests from opposition lawmakers, one of whom exploded a tear gas canister in the assembly.
Critics say the deal is lop-sided and serves big business at the expense of South Korea's farmers and service industries.
Seoul's foreign ministry said in a statement the deal would expand trade and strengthen security ties with its closest ally. The US has 28,500 troops stationed in the South to deter a North Korean attack,
Two-way trade was worth $101 billion in 2011, up from the previous year's $90.2 billion, according to Korea Customs Service data.
The US International Trade Commission has estimated that Korean exports to the United States would now increase by $6.4 to $6.9 billion annually.
South Korea's main opposition party, which negotiated the 2007 deal while in office, says revisions have made it one-sided and vows to seek a renegotiation if it wins a general election next month and a presidential poll in December.
An estimated 1,200 protesters rallied in central Seoul Wednesday evening, hours before the pact came into force at midnight local time.
On Thursday some 30 people including politicians and farmers' and workers' representatives demonstrated against it, while an umbrella anti-FTA group called for a candlelit vigil for the evening.
Protesters said the agreement would only "make the rich richer and the poor poorer", devastate Korea's weak agriculture and service industries and only benefit large businesses.
Kim Soo-Dong, a researcher at the state-run Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, told Yonhap news agency the deal will boost South Korea's exports of autos, electronic goods and textiles to the US.
South Korea also has trade deals in force with the EU, India, Chile, Peru, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Singapore and the European Free Trade Association (Liechtenstein, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland).
South Korea has also agreed to start formal negotiations as soon as possible with its largest trading partner, China.