SOUTH KOREA: Thousands gather to denounce U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement during annual labour rally

Record ID: 402029

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: Thousands gather to denounce U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement during annual labour rally
  • Date: 12th November 2006
  • Summary: MORE OF RALLY
  • Embargoed: 27th November 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA3X3WHZKXOVLQDAUO1C80TFX0E
  • Story Text: Thousands of labourers gathered in front of Seoul's City Hall on Sunday (November 12) to denounce a free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations between the United States and South Korea.
    About 10,000 workers affiliated with South Korea's major umbrella union Korea Confederation of Trade Unions gathered and chanted slogans denouncing FTA negotiations. South Korean media reported that 30,000 protesters attended the rally.
    "We are here to denounce the South Korea-U.S. FTA (free trade agreement) which is being discussed in a hasty manner without taking the public's opinion into consideration," said Democratic Labour Party (DLP) spokesman Woo Moon-sook.
    The DLP has many unionists and farmers as supporters of the party.
    Unionists have staged rowdy protests during the previous rounds of talks between the two countries.
    U.S. and South Korean trade officials are seeking to narrow differences in opening markets for farm goods, textiles, automobiles and pharmaceuticals in a race against an informal end-of-March deadline in time for an up-or-down by U.S. Congress.
    The Bush administration's fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals expires in July.
    Officials faced a tough week of negotiations on sticking points in the fourth round of the talks aimed at creating the biggest U.S. trade pact since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.
    South Korea will continue to resist U.S. pressure to include wider rice market opening in the deal and push for greater access to U.S. textile markets, officials in Seoul have said.
    The officials also face an uphill battle in negotiations on autos, textiles and pharmaceuticals as interests conflict sharply on how much market opening would be granted.
    South Korea is the world's 10th largest economy and the seventh largest U.S. trading partner, with two-way trade totalling about $72 billion last year.
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