Recommended Reading
OFK has two excellent postings I recommend everyone check out. The first posting is about the apparent death of the US-ROK FTA. Joshua as well as Brendon Carr provide some excellent insight into why this agreement is finally dead. The second posting is about the agenda of the Second Inter-Korean Summit. As I expected human rights, the closing of forced labor camps, and the freeing of South Korean hostages in North Korea is no where on the agenda.
I don't know why anyone thought the FTA would go through, or why they would want such a bad deal to go through, either. It seems the only argument for ratification was political. OTOH, that's not why trade deals are done, only for economic efficiency. OTOH, conservatives would prefer the ROK-US alliance die quietly rather than be covert cover for Korean progressives' unification agenda. So, why not just salute the death of the FTA.
It seems the anti-trade GOP wing and the labor Dems should just party into a coma and save both parties from obseslescence and bad press.
As for the human rights syuff, it has nothing to do with FTA. And, for no other reason than to teach the Labor Dems and social conservatives that fact, I say good riddance to a crappy deal!
Thanks for the shout-out, Jon.
An FTA will eventually get done but it should not be done while Roh is in office. Why should the US reward Roh with as the deal currently stands despite the stupid anti-US protesters claims, is more favorable to Korea than the US?
If Lee Myung-bak is the next president getting an FTA approved during his presidency would be a way for the US to build his creditentials. Also the FTA can be used as leverage to make sure the next president assures that the USFK transformation continues as scheduled.
However, any FTA no matter who the president is should clearly state that no products from NK slave labor will be included in the deal. That is where human rights plays into the agreement.