SEOUL (AFP) — South Korea's opposition party refused Tuesday to support a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States, dealing a blow to Seoul's hopes for quick ratification to set an example to the US Congress.
The Democrat-led Congress is also delaying approval of the sweeping deal, the biggest for America in 15 years.
Sohn Hak-Kyu, head of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), rejected President Lee Myung-Bak's request for help to push the trade deal through parliament when they met on Tuesday, Lee's spokesman said.
The government had hoped to get the pact ratified in May to press the US Congress also to move quickly. The current parliament dominated by the UDP and its allies ends its four-year term this weekend.
Lee's Grand National Party (GNP) will hold a majority in the new assembly convening next month following its April 9 election victory.
However a GNP official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP it would take months for the new parliament to approve the FTA, especially given the summer break in July and August.
"We have to go through all the complex procedures all over again," the official said.
The UDP and its allies insist that the government renegotiate a separate pact opening up the Korean market to US beef before they support the FTA.
The beef pact signed last month was a US precondition for approval of the FTA. But thousands of Koreans have taken to the streets to protest the supposed dangers of the human form of mad cow disease.
"The Korea-US free trade deal, which began during the current National Assembly, should be ratified by the same National Assembly," Lee was quoted as telling Sohn.
His government and the United States both refuse to renegotiate the beef pact. Lee told Sohn that through further talks with the US, South Korea has secured tougher conditions for imports to eliminate mad cow perils.
Trade Minister Kim Jong-Hoon said later the US has agreed that South Korea has the right to suspend beef imports if a new case of mad cow disease is confirmed in the US.
Previously Seoul would not have been able to halt imports until the World Organisation for Animal Health changed the US's "risk-controlled status" regarding the disease.
Sohn demanded a full renegotiation and urged the president to hold himself responsible for, and to apologise for, the beef controversy.
In Washington, lawmakers have cited barriers to US auto imports as among key reasons for their reluctance to ratify the FTA.
US Commerce Under Secretary Christopher Padilla said Monday they were "using a variety of excuses to delay voting" based on reasons "that appear to have very little to do with trade."
Washington also rejects fears among some Koreans of US beef, saying no one has ever contracted the human form of mad cow disease through eating it.
"There is no safer beef. It is second to none in the world," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in Seoul last week.
Total trade between South Korea and the US is worth an annual 80 billion dollars. Some studies show this could eventually rise by up to 20 billion dollars under a free trade regime.
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