Lawmakers in Last-Ditch Effort to Ratify South Korea-Chile FTA


By Yoo Dong-ho
Staff Reporter
The long-delayed bill to send an additional 3,000 troops to Iraq passed through a parliamentary committee on Monday.

The National Assembly’s National Defense Committee approved the government-sponsored bill by a vote of 12 to 2 and passed it to a full Assembly session for final approval.

The bill, if approved, will allow the government to send troops to Iraq in late April. The government finalized its plan late last year to send a 3,000-strong contingent, including combatants, to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk in late April to help with U.S. reconstruction projects.

The bill is expected to be put to vote at the parliament’s full session next week.

Ahead of its parliamentary approval, the government-sponsored plan came under fire for lacking detailed information regarding the exact nature, location and role of the South Korean dispatch.

The Assembly also made its third attempt on Monday to ratify the long-delayed South Korea-Chile free trade agreement (FTA).

The action comes after the unicameral legislature failed twice to tackle the bilateral trade accord, apparently fearing repercussions from workers in the agricultural sector.

Local farmers and fishermen, who account for one-eighth of South Korea’s population of 48 million, feared the pact would take away their business and hinder local industries.

They vow to vote against legislators who support the agreement in the April 15 general elections.

Two previous parliamentary attempts to vote on the FTA with Chile were blocked by ruling and opposition members who have been working to stop the bill.

A first for Korea, the FTA was expected to pave the way for the nation’s manufactured products _ automobiles in particular _ to overtake Japanese manufacturers operating in the Chilean market, according to officials. Seoul will remove import tariffs on all Chilean goods, with electric copper cathodes being the only exception. Chile will free tariffs on 224 agricultural items in the first year, including cows, pigs, chickens, furs, wool and wheat.

Lawmakers have been under intense pressure from exporters and businessmen who believe delays in ratification will further damage the nation’s exports and erode national interests and investor confidence.

After South Korea signed the Chile FTA, its first with any country, in February last year, Chile’s two-house parliament approved the bilateral FTA.

yoodh@koreatimes.co.kr