President hopes to build momentum for ratification as opposition defiance persists


President Lee Myung-bak will visit the National Assembly on Tuesday to ask parliamentarians to ratify the pending free trade agreement with the U.S., his aides said Friday.

“The president is strongly committed to getting the FTA ratified, so much so that he is willing to persuade opposition lawmakers in person,” Kim Hyo-jae, Lee’s senior secretary for political affairs, told reporters.

Lee had initially wanted to go to the parliament Friday, but rescheduled his visit to next week after Democratic Party leaders refused to see him. National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae suggested Lee come on Nov. 15 instead, which the president accepted.

Lee has visited the parliament twice before ― in February 2008 to attend his inaugural ceremony and in June that year to deliver a speech. Tuesday’s visit, if realized, would be the first visit on the president’s own initiative.

The rare move by the conservative leader comes as the FTA bill languishes at parliamentary subcommittee stage amid fierce opposition from liberal lawmakers.

Lee wants to see the treaty go into effect in January. The U.S. Congress ratified the deal last month while he was in Washington for a summit talk with President Barack Obama.

At the parliament on Tuesday, the president hopes to talk to opposition leaders who claim that the trade pact is biased in favor of the U.S.

They demand a set of clauses on investor-state dispute settlement mechanism be deleted from the agreement.

The main opposition DP lawmakers were unimpressed by the planned presidential visit. They fear the move may be just a publicity stunt before the ruling camp passes the bill using its majority status at the parliament.

“(A meeting with the president) won’t be worthwhile, if the president just intends to secure the parliamentary ratification by piling more pressure on opposition parties, while not making any new proposal or other efforts to change the current impasse,” Rep. Lee Yong-sub, the DP’s spokesperson said.

On Friday, the GNP and DP were continuing efforts to narrow their rift over the ISD clauses, the last sticking point for the treaty’s ratification.

“We’re trying to persuade the opposition parties,” GNP floor leader Rep. Hwang Woo-yea told a radio program, adding that the opposition’s concerns on the ISD mechanism could be addressed within the framework of a Korea-U.S. joint working group to be established once the deal takes effect.

On Oct. 30, Seoul and Washington exchanged letters to form two working groups. One of them is to oversee issues related to services and investment that arise after the deal’s coming into effect.

Lawmakers of the DP and other left-wing parties claim that the proposed ISD system would put Korea at a disadvantage by allowing American investors to dispute its policies for small firms and farmers at international courts.

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