U.S. Congressmen Undecided Over FTA

It has been a month since the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) was concluded. Over the past two weeks, Dong A-Ilbo conducted a telephone survey of 21 congressmen of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and 15 congressmen of the House Subcommittee on trade on their opinions of the Korea-U.S. FTA.

The survey results can be summarized into two main points. One is that a majority of them do not yet have a clear position and the other is that the opening of Korea’s beef market will be the most crucial element in making their position.

Among the surveyed congressmen of the Senate Finance Committee, four expressed their opposition to the deal because of the beef import issue, and one expressed his dissent due to the exclusion of rice in the deal.

A majority of the congressmen of the House Subcommittee on trade did not also have a clear position. In fact, there was only one congressman who expressed a clear position.

An analysis of U.S. lawmakers’ inclinations on the issue shows that their attitudes are more negative than the official stances that they have expressed to the media.

According to an analysis that the United States Trade Representative secretly carried out a recent poll on the inclination of the U.S. legislators from both Republican and Democratic parties over the deal, more than half of them turned out to be against the ratification of the FTA.

In addition, according to an opinion poll carried out by the Republican leadership of its lawmakers, a majority of them turned out to be indifferent or unaware of the details of the Korea-U.S. FTA, and those who showed interest pointed out that the beef issue would be a stumbling block.

“I recently discussed the matter with people within and outside the administration and realized that they believe it will not even be necessary to submit the motion for ratification unless the beef issue is resolved,” said Jeffery Sax, a researcher at the U.S. Institute for International Economics.

However, once the beef issue is settled after the World Organization for Animal Health, commonly known as the OIE, announces its final review on the safety of U.S. beef from mad cow disease this month, the Korea-U.S. FTA is expected to be ratified by Congress after “bumpy discussions”, according to FTA experts in the U.S.