FTA Marks a Historic Chapter of Success
My Fellow Koreans,
The negotiations for a Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement were finally wrapped up successfully today. The conclusion came fourteen months after the start of negotiations was announced in February last year. It has been four years since the Government started preparations. It has been a long and tough process, indeed.
I am grateful to the Korean people for their trust in the Government and their support to date. The delegation has exerted painstaking efforts during the negotiation process. I praise them for a tenacious and cool-headed manner shown throughout the KORUS FTA negotiations.
The Government focused on economic benefits when it sat down for the negotiations. There has been much concern about the pressure from the U.S. side. As a matter of fact, the U.S. demands have been daunting, and the U.S. Congress also has put fierce pressure on us. The Korean Government, however, has never given in to pressure but moved ahead to serve the interests of Korea, thoroughly calculating advantages and disadvantages.
Yet another achievement is a mechanism through which Korea will be able to reflect and solidify its position more proactively during the course of U.S. anti-dumping investigations of Korean goods. It is a bit regrettable that we were not able to successfully push our demand to the end on this point, but it can be said to be a step forward. By taking good advantage of it, Korean exporting companies will be able to reap great benefits.
The two sides agreed to establish the Committee on Outward Processing Zones on the Korean Peninsula, paving the way for the goods manufactured in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex to be recognized as Korean-made products. The benefit of this agreement should expand to cover the whole area of North Korea, let alone the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, in the future.
Of course, there must be some people who may suffer hardships in the future. A case in point is those who work in the agricultural sector. The Government, however, has striven to protect the interest of farmers to the greatest extent possible and most of our demands were included in the final outcome. Tariffs on various farm products will be phased out or eliminated over time: on pork in a maximum of 10 years, on chicken in 10 years, on beef in 15 years, on apples and pears in 20 years and on oranges in seven years. We have secured sufficient time to restructure the agricultural sector and strengthen its competitiveness.
Korea’s pharmaceutical sector will have its share of difficulties. When viewing this issue from a different perspective, we realize that Korea’s pharmaceutical industry cannot afford to remain a small and medium venture that keeps relying on the production of generic drugs. Korean drug manufacturers need to turn this new environment into an opportunity to sharpen their competitive edge by enhancing research and development and accelerating restructuring efforts.
There are a considerable number of people who claim that the free trade agreement will exacerbate socioeconomic polarization, but I stand to differ. We all understand that the agricultural sector will be adversely affected, but this is an area where the Government is covering all its bases, and there will be separate discussions.
The education and medical sectors remain closed while broadcasting and culture industries have not been opened up extensively. All of these leave a lot to be desired. Korea’s culture industry needs to square up against global competition·especially with the U.S.; only those who tough it out to the end will emerge as the world’s best. Public services and cultural elements must be preserved, but the industry must vigorously walk onto the stage of competition with the rest of the world.
This is where I think that the Korean delegates outdid themselves in terms of defending the industries mentioned just now. The delegation deserves praise, but, frankly, I am not completely content with the outcome. I think that they considered the potential difficulty of ratification, but I cannot help thinking that these industrial aspects could have been dealt with differently.
The tariff on beef was discussed during the FTA talks, but sanitary inspection standards were not on the negotiation agenda. In principle, we agreed that this issue would be discussed separately from the FTA negotiations.
In a recent telephone conversation with President George W. Bush, I made the following promise and confirmation: First, the Korean Government will continue to engage in the negotiations in good faith. Second, in the process, Korea will uphold the recommendations of the World Organization for Animal Health and intends to open the Korean market at a reasonable level. Third, Korea will try to implement the agreement procedures within a reasonable time frame.
The Korean Government will keep its promises. As we carry out the promises faithfully, we will be able to come up with a possible date for importing beef. It is not correct to argue that the provision represents an unconditional promise to import beef or even that there is a secret deal.
I must make myself clear here that the Korean Government is not the kind that is not capable of distinguishing benefits from losses; neither is it the kind that lacks backbone, patriotism or self-respect. As I followed the negotiation process, I was again deeply convinced of our civil servants’ stance and capabilities.
Once more, I would like to mention that the FTA negotiations were first proposed by the Korean Government and have been conducted under the Korean initiative from the beginning.
In all of this, I have nothing to gain personally. I have done what I did solely out of my conviction and good conscience. It was a decisive action that I took at the cost of a possible political setback.
Basically, an FTA is not a matter of politics or ideology. It is a matter of survival. It should not be handled with nationalistic emotions or political calculations.
Let’s all have self-confidence and energetically meet the challenge for a brighter future. Let’s rally our collective strength and wisdom and write a historic chapter of yet another success.
Thank you.
웹사이트: http://www.president.go.kr
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2008년 8월 6일 17:22
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