Concern is mounting over the growing possibility that the ratification of a free trade agreement signed between Korea and China in June will be held hostage to an intensifying partisan feud between the two main parties.

In her address to the parliament Tuesday, President Park Geun-hye asked lawmakers to quickly ratify a series of free trade deals the country has concluded with China, New Zealand and Vietnam. She particularly noted a delay in ratifying the FTA with China would cost Korea about 4 billion won ($3.4 million) in daily lost earnings from exports.

But the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy seems to be in no mood to pay heed to Park’s appeal. It has suggested its representatives will boycott a meeting Friday with officials from the ruling Saenuri Party and related government ministries, which is set to discuss ways to settle differences over the ratification of the Korea-China trade pact during the ongoing parliamentary session that ends in December.

NPAD lawmakers argue what is important is the content of the deal, not how fast it gets parliamentary approval, noting the economic environment has changed a lot from the time when the two countries engaged in negotiations to hammer out a free trade accord. Rep. Choi Jae-cheon, the party’s chief policymaker, this week called on the government to draw up measures to make compensations to sectors expected to suffer from the FTA with China and make up for revenue deficits that he said would reach 770 billion won on average annually over the next five years due to a cut in tariffs.

But critics say the opposition party is holding the FTA ratification and the passage of other bills designed to reinvigorate the sluggish economy ransom in its intensifying confrontation with President Park and the ruling party over a controversial plan to publish government-authored history textbooks.

The NPAD’s adamant objection is likely to put Park in an awkward position during her talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who arrives in Seoul on Saturday for a trilateral summit with Park and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a bilateral meeting with the Korean leader. Li is expected to call on Seoul to strengthen efforts toward the early implementation of the bilateral trade accord.

The ruling party has intensified consultations with government policymakers to pass the ratification bill soon to ensure the trade deal with China takes effect within the year. Despite its majority in the 300-member parliament, the Saenuri Party needs cooperation from the opposition in ratifying the FTA with China, as the passage of a bill requires support from three-fifths of legislators.

The stalled progress in putting the deal into practice has placed local companies on edge as they are struggling with decreasing demand from China, the world’s No. 2 economy. Korea’s exports to China, its largest trading partner, shrank by 9.9 percent from a year earlier in the first nine months of this year, according to data from the Korea International Trade Association.

Trade officials here say the implementation of the accord would help Korean companies, especially small and mid-size enterprises, increase their shipments to China. Besides a reduction in tariffs, the removal of nontariff trade barriers would lead to boosting exports of Korean consumer goods popular with Chinese customers.

During their meeting this week, members of a KITA committee on international cooperation called for the early implementation of the Korea-China FTA, which they said was urgently needed to make Korean goods more competitive in China’s consumer markets.

The opposition party, however, has turned a deaf ear to these appeals, insisting on renegotiating the trade deal, which experts see as unrealistic. Business circles now share a growing concern that failure in ratifying the trade accord and passing other economic bills may push the Korean economy already struggling with slowing growth further into a predicament. Then, critics indicate, the NPAD’s uncompromising stance may backfire in next year’s general elections.

By Kim Kyung-ho (khkim@heraldcorp.com)