By Byun Duk-kun
Staff Reporter

Thousands of farmers staged a rally in Seoul on Monday to protest the planned approval of a free trade agreement (FTA) with Chile.

More than 3,000 farmers from seven farmers associations, including the Korean Advanced Farmers Federation and the Korean Farmers League, gathered in front of the National Assembly in Yoido to oppose passage of the nation’s first FTA.

``The FTA with Chile offers little gains for the nation and economy while posing destructive threats to the nation’s farming industry,’’ Min Dong-wook, an official of the Korea Farmers Solidarity, an organization of more than 300,000 farmers nationwide, said in an interview.

No major violence was reported as the government also placed more than 4,000 police force around the parliament building to prevent a violent outbreak from the angry farmers and fishermen.

Korea Farmers Solidarity has been leading the eight-month protest since the signing of the FTA between former President Kim Dae-jung and his Chilean counterpart Ricardo Lagos Escobar in February. The organization stepped up its opposition when the National Assembly’s Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee ratified the FTA bill last Friday.

More than 100 farmers in Chongup, North Cholla Province, tried to block the Honam (Seoul-Cholla) Highway with tractors and other heavy farming equipments Sunday in protest of the FTA. After about three hours of defying a police force of some 1,000, most of the farmers left the demonstration while some abandoned their tractors and farming equipment on the road to make their way onto the highway on foot.

When the foreign affairs and trade committee ratified the nation’s first FTA Friday, the committee also attached a collateral condition that a separate bill, designed to help the nation’s farmers recover damages caused by the FTA, be passed simultaneously.

The recovery bill, however, failed to pass the Assembly’s Agriculture, Forestry, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Committee as a number of lawmakers, who are mindful of their farmer constituents, decided to sit idle on the bill ahead of the general elections in April while the FTA bill also failed to pass the Assembly’s plenary session.

``Even if (the FTA bill) is not ratified this time, what harm is it to us? Is the nation going to go bankrupt or will diplomatic relations with Chile be cut off?’’ Rep. Lee Jung-il of the Millennium Democratic Party and also a member of the agriculture committee said. Lee went on to argue the FTA bill must be reevaluated by saying, ``It takes more than 10 years for countries like the United States to conclude such an agreement with a foreign country.’’

Still, the farmers argued the FTA must be scrapped altogether.

``We are not opposed to the FTA itself because it is a trend that we cannot stop even if we wanted to. But the FTA with Chile threatens the nation’s farming industry and the government doesn’t even have a clue how much damage it will cause to the nation’s agricultural market,’’ Min said.

Min also cast strong doubts over the government-proposed recovery bill to help the nation’s farmers by saying, ``How can they possibly help with the damage when they haven’t even carried out a thorough study on the size and amount of damage?’’

The farmers associations have pledged to continue their struggle until the government scraps the FTA bill. The organizations also decided to carry out a blackballing campaign ahead of the general elections against any lawmaker who endorses the FTA bill.

benjamine@koreatimes.co.kr