Bill tabled to Assembly panel, but opposition blocks vote


The ruling Grand National Party moved to ratify a free trade agreement with the U.S. on its own Wednesday, submitting the bill for a committee-level vote, despite strong resistance from opposition lawmakers.

Rep. Nam Kyung-pil, chair of the parliament’s foreign affairs and trade committee and GNP lawmaker, used his authority to put the bill to the table, as opposition members physically occupied the committee’s main conference room to prevent the bill’s passage.

“I hereby submit the motion to ratify the Korea-U.S. FTA,” Nam said at an annex to the conference room, where opposition members have locked themselves in.

Nam, however, did not push further to take a vote on the bill to clear it for a plenary session in the face of vehement opposition resistance. He closed the committee session after the floor leaders of the ruling and opposition parties failed to achieve a breakthrough. Opposition lawmakers dispersed from the main and annex conference rooms after Nam’s announcement.

If cleared by the committee, the FTA ratification bill would head for the final vote at a plenary session. The next plenary sessions are scheduled for Thursday and Nov. 10.

The GNP and opposition parties appeared to be heading for a showdown in the parliamentary floor.

The main opposition Democratic Party vowed to use all possible means to block the GNP’s attempt to unilaterally pass the trade bill. The GNP controls 168 seats in a 299-member unicameral parliament.

The two parties remained poles apart on a key issue of whether to delete the Investor-State Dispute settlement clauses from the agreement.

Floor leaders of the GNP and the DP met late Wednesday evening in to find a breakthrough. Earlier this week, they reached a tentative agreement to prepare additional safeguards to protect local industries and pave the way for the accord’s ratification.

The deal was rejected by DP members, who stuck to their hard-line stance on the ISD mechanism.

DP members demand the ISD clauses be dropped, claiming that they would allow American investors to dispute the Korean government’s policies for local industries.

The GNP has called the demand “unreasonable,” saying the pact has been long-studied by the Korean side and that the U.S. has already ratified its part of the deal.

The Korea-U.S. FTA was first signed in 2007 and then modified last year. Korea’s opposition groups claim that the balance of interests swung in favor of the U.S. during the re-negotiation, which was initiated at the request of the U.S. The U.S. Congress ratified its part of the deal last month.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)