[Ip-health] Reuters: U.S., South Korea kick off trade talks amid protests

[Mike Palmedo]

http://news.moneycontrol.com/india/news/business/ussouthkoreakickofftradetalksamidprotests/resultsviewsipomfinsurancetaxnriinterviewsceocommentspressreleases/market/stocks/article/6841/999999

U.S., South Korea kick off trade talks amid protests

By Doug Palmer
Reuters
2006-06-06 01:27

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and South Korea kicked off
talks on Monday on the biggest U.S. free trade agreement in more than 12
years, as South Korean farmers and labor activists vowed to do what they
could to stop it.

Chief U.S. negotiator Wendy Cutler said the two sides would focus this
week on relatively non-controversial issues -- what she called
"low-hanging fruit" -- and save more difficult topics like rice,
automobiles and the treatment of products made in a North Korean
industrial park for later rounds.

Negotiators are pushing for a deal by January so Congress can vote on it
before the expiration of White House authority to negotiate trade
agreements that cannot be amended. That authority expires in mid-2007.

The KorUS Free Trade Agreement would be the biggest U.S. free trade deal
since the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Congress approved
in 1993.

South Korea is the world's 10th-largest economy and the United States'
seventh-largest trading partner, with two-way goods trade totaling about
billion last year. But South Korea has a much more protected market than
the United States.

About 45 South Korean farmers, union members and other activists have
travelled to Washington to protest the talks, but Cutler said she
remained "optimistic about our ability to conclude a high-quality,
comprehensive agreement."

"The political will is clearly there on both sides," Cutler told
reporters as the protesters banged drums and chanted anti-FTA (free
trade agreement) slogans outside the U.S. Trade Representative's office.
"Both sides are entering into the negotiations with their eyes wide
open," she said.

Cutler told reporters Washington would not ask Seoul to open its market
to more American films as part of the pact. South Korea already made a
significant concession by reducing the number of days theaters must show
domestic films to 73 from 146, which goes into effect in July, she said.

However, Cutler criticized new South Korean rules that would make it
harder for big U.S. drug companies to compete in the market. The United
States wants those overturned and even greater access as part of the
pact, she said.

PROTESTS PLANNED

South Korean activists have said that opening the South Korean market to
more U.S. goods and services by tearing down high tariffs and other
barriers would endanger the livelihood of 15 million South Korean
workers and 3.5 million farmers.

Opponents of trade liberalization in South Korea have a reputation for
violent protests, such as at a World Trade Organization meeting in
December in Hong Kong, where they clashed repeatedly with police.

Oh Jongryul, co-chair of the Korean Alliance Against the KORUS FTA, told
reporters they planned only "peaceful and legal actions" this week in
Washington.

Those include daily rallies outside the U.S. Trade Representative's
office, a candlelight vigil in a park across from the White House and a
meeting with sympathetic lawmakers in Congress, organizers said.

South Korean labor unions and farmers will hold a general strike and
huge street protest on July 12 -- when the second round of negotiations
will be underway in Seoul -- in an effort to persuade the South Korean
government "to stop the KORUS talks," said Kim Taeil, general secretary
of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.