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| Protests mark opening day of US-South Korea trade talks |
Posted
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Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:02:00 GMT
| Author :
Peter Goodyear
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 JEJU ISLAND, South Korea - South Korea and the United States began another round of intensive talks on the free trade agreement (FTA) today even as the shadow of North Korea's nuclear test refused to go away. The FTA needs to be ratified by March at the latest and the US and South Korea are hoping to iron out any differences by then.
The FTA focuses on key areas like arm goods, textiles, automobiles and pharmaceuticals. It hopes to remove any barriers to trade between the two countries and virtually enforce a free market atmosphere. Although little progress was made on Monday, the chief U.S. negotiator, Wendy Cutler, said they were only just beginning to touch the issues.
"Our position once again is this agreement is about the U.S. and the Republic of Korea and about covering goods produced in the U.S. and the Republic of Korea," Cutler said, adding that as yet no agreement had been inked.
"We have $72 billion in two-way trade so it's only natural that there are a lot of issues at hand to be negotiated and, frankly, a lot of concerns and sensitivities on both sides that need to be addressed," Cutler observed.
South Korea is being represented by trade diplomat Kim Jong-hoon in the talks that are to go on till Friday.
However thousands of farm workers and activists opposed to the FTA demonstrated outside the venue. An estimated 7,000 protesters had reached the venue by afternoon and they tried to storm the hotel, but were confronted by about 200 riot police.
“No to FTA!”, “Stop FTA negotiations” and “No rice imports,” were the main slogans being shouted by the activists. “Signing a free trade agreement with the US, the world's agricultural powerhouse, is ... the death penalty for Korean farmers,” the Korean Peasants League said.
The US is hoping to seal the agreement by the end of the year, although Cutler admitted the talks may drag into 2007.
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