U.S., S.Korea to Hold 7th Round of Talks

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korean and U.S. free trade negotiators will sit down for a seventh time next week in Washington, with Seoul hoping a strategy of linking contentious issues together will yield a breakthrough.

South Korea and the United States in June launched talks aimed at slashing tariffs and other trade barriers, but differences in key sectors have slowed progress with time running out.

Negotiators will meet from Sunday through Wednesday in Washington, the scheduling dictated by South Korea's upcoming lunar new year celebrations beginning late next week.

South Korea "will push to strike deals on key issues in each sector by linking them with each other," Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said in a report submitted to the National Assembly on Thursday.

He specified areas important for his country, such as gaining concessions on U.S. trade remedies, as well as those key for the United States, such as automobiles and pharmaceuticals.

Kim's report appears to suggest that dealing with the toughest issues together rather than individually -- or a kind of "package deal" in the words of South Korea's Yonhap news agency -- may facilitate the compromise needed to achieve progress.

At the conclusion of the sixth round in Seoul last month, Kim Jong-hoon, South Korea's chief negotiator, cited "no progress" in those areas, including his side's push for the U.S. to lessen the chance of antidumping tariffs being levied against South Korean products.

Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler, Kim's counterpart, cautioned against undue pessimism, saying that breakthroughs usually come at the very end of the negotiating process.

A deal, if successful, would be the biggest for Washington since the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1993.

But time is running out if the two sides are to take advantage of special executive powers seen making an agreement's eventual ratification easier for the United States. U.S. President George W. Bush's Trade Promotion Authority -- meaning he can submit a deal to Congress for a straight yes-no vote with no amendments -- expires on July 1.

But various administrative and legal requirements mean an agreement needs to be wrapped up 90 days before that for the so-called "fast track" powers to apply.

Any deal will need to be approved by lawmakers in both countries, though votes may not come for months.

The two governments say a deal will add to the US$72 billion (euro55 billion) a year in trade the countries already do and boost economic growth.

But concerns that free trade could cost jobs and threaten livelihoods have been raised in both countries, especially South Korea.

"All TPA FTAs do not respect international standards on labor, the environment, health and public safety," said Joo Je-jun, general secretary of the Korean Alliance Against KorUS FTA, which groups 300 organizations opposing a deal.

About 20 South Korean's from Joo's organization plan to go to Washington to protest the talks with supporters in the United States and hold a briefing for lawmakers and Congressional staff members.

A cloud hanging over the talks, however, is a spat between the two countries over trade in U.S. beef, suspended for almost three years after mad cow disease was found in the United States in 2003.

South Korea agreed last year to resume imports of boneless beef, but the first three shipments that arrived were turned away because bone fragments were found.

Talks on the issue this week failed to bridge gaps, South Korea's Agriculture and Forestry Ministry said in a statement Friday.

USTR's Cutler said last month cautioned South Korea that there will be no free trade deal unless the country fully reopens its market to U.S. beef.

South Korea was the third-largest market for U.S. beef before the 2003 ban.

Associated Press Writer Kwang-tae Kim contributed to this report.