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Bickering S.Korean MPs may delay U.S. trade vote
Reuters - 2 hours 42 minutes ago
By Jon Herskovitz and Kim Junghyun
SEOUL, Dec 30 - A leader of South Korea's ruling party said on Tuesday the group was willing to delay a vote on a sweeping free trade deal with the United States if it would help end an opposition protest that has paralyzed parliament.
The conservative Grand National Party , which holds a majority in parliament, could delay the vote on the trade deal until around February in a compromise that would allow it to quickly pass reforms it feels are needed to boost Asia's fourth largest economy, GNP floor leader Hong Joon-pyo told local media.
"If we still can't get results after making such a major concession, talks will break down. There won't be anything more to give," Hong was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.
The opposition Democratic Party said in a statement the ruling group had offered the compromise that included putting off the vote on the U.S. trade deal. It has staged a sit-in protest since last week to block entry to the main hall of the National Assembly and various committee chambers.
The speaker of parliament has said he would force a vote by Wednesday on the measures that are likely to include the least controversial economic reforms such as revising bank ownership regulations and privatising a few state-controlled firms.
The GNP also wants to pass measures to cut taxes, offer debt relief to lower income citizens and revamp media ownership regulations but may wait until January to bring those up for a vote, local media reported.
South Korea has been hard hit by the global downturn, with industrial output figures on Tuesday showing the biggest fall in 21 years underscoring the depth of the slump in the economy and the urgency of official efforts to shore it up.
SLEDGEHAMMERS
South Korea's parliament ground to a halt after opposition MPs swinging sledgehammers on Dec. 18 tried to force their way into a committee meeting room to halt the introduction of the bill to ratify the trade deal with the United States.
They were turned back by an office-furniture barricade and by ruling party MPs who sprayed fire extinguishers at them in a melee that local newspapers described as an embarrassment.
South Korea and the United States last year struck the trade deal that studies said would boost their $78 billion a year in two-way trade by about $20 billion. The pact has not been approved by legislatures in either country.
Korea University political science professor Hahm Sung Deuk said if South Korean lawmakers had acted sooner in ratifying the trade pact, it would have been easier for the deal to win approval in the lame-duck U.S. Congress.
But the dynamics in Washington will change in January when President-elect Barack Obama, who has said parts of the deal, such as auto trade, need to be renegotiated, takes office and what is seen as a more protectionist Congress is seated.
South Korean analysts said it may take six months or more for Congress to take up the FTA, the largest bilateral trade deal the United States has struck in about 15 years. And there is more pressure to revise the auto trade section due to the precarious financial position of the Big Three U.S. carmakers.
The Bank of Korea forecast earlier this month that the economy would grow 2 percent in 2009 after an estimated 3.6 percent this year. But some international investment banks, such as UBS, have warned the export-led economy could contract by as much as 3 percent next year.
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