Moon vows to renegotiate US FTA

Park Geun-hye, left, the ruling Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate, answers questions at a meeting with the student body at Kangwon National University, Thursday; while Moon Jae-in, center, the Democratic United Party’s candidate, drinks water at an event celebrating private kindergarten educators’ day at KBS Sports World, Seoul. Independent Ahn Cheol-soo, right, makes buckwheat noodles during a visit to Hoengseong Hanu Festival in Gangwon Province. / Yonhap Candidates differ on economic vision By Kang Hyun-kyung Rival presidential candidates locked horns over the free trade agreement signed with the United States (KORUS FTA) Thursday, pushing the treaty, which is already in effect, as a campaign issue. Rep. Moon Jae-in, presidential candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP), pledged that he would seek renegotiation of the KORUS FTA if elected. Speaking at a seminar held in southern Seoul, Moon said he would “regain the sovereignty over customs clearance” from the U.S. government. “Agricultural issues should be dealt with in multilateral negotiations that handle environmental, socio-economic and other related issues together, not in bilateral trade pact talks,” he said. “We had a vivid memory of the anti-U.S. beef import rallies that swept the nation back in 2008. The rallies showed the people’s deep interest in food safety.” Moon revealed his position on the KORUS FTA a day after Rep. Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party opened fire at him for reversing his position on key issues, including the trade pact. “The former Roh Moo-hyun government pushed the plan to build a naval base on Jeju Island to build up Korea’s naval power and security. But those who pushed for the agenda suddenly reversed their position on it,” she said. “They also flip-flopped their position on the KORUS FTA which was also clinched under the Roh government.” The FTA is one of the areas the major presidential candidates differ over. They were also not on the same page on their remedy for four policy headaches _ low birthrates, an ageing society, jobless growth and high unemployment. Rep. Park places a top priority on creativity to solve the problems, whereas Rep. Moon proposed fairness as a key theme of his economic vision. Software millionaire-turned-presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo puts emphasis on the power of innovation. Park pledged to reinstall the ministry handling science and technology to back up her plan to develop new engines for growth. Unveiling economic campaign pledges, Park dubbed her vision as creative economics aimed to boost imagination, creativity, science and technology. “If elected president, I will shift the focus of the role of our education into boosting creativity and imagination,” she said. “I will create the Ministry of Future Science and Technology responsible for laying the groundwork for creative economics. The ministry will educate human resources to have a creative and convergent mindset and support research activities to better prepare for the future and to build and protect the ecosystem of scientific knowledge.” The science technology ministry was abolished after President Lee Myung-bak took power in February 2008. Several other ministries, including the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, took over parts of its functions. Park hinted at putting a halt to the growth-oriented policies sought under the Lee government as they have been criticized for causing growth without job creation. “Through creative economics, I will set a new model for the Korean economy and end the decades-long practice of emulating other successful economies to boost economic growth,” said she. “Under this plan, my team will switch the policy priority to boosting the employment rate as the current growth-oriented policy has led to jobless growth. I will seek quality-oriented growth which cares for humans and promotes science and technology.” Her remarks came amid deepening social inequality as jobless growth has continued over the past years. Despite economic growth, the income gap between the upper- and lower-class families has widened and decent jobs are increasingly disappearing. Youth unemployment is high, and household debt has soared. These negative signs cemented public skepticism about the growth-oriented economic vision as unlike advocates’ claims, no trickle-down effect to lower-income families has occurred. Moon proposed “fair economics” as the guiding principle for his vision on the economy. He called for curbing corporate greed and redistribution of wealth to resolve social inequality, claiming this will help the economy grow, create jobs, strengthen the social safety net and achieve economic justice. The former presidential chief of staff to the late President Roh Moo-hyun pledged to reform corporate governance of conglomerates, abolish tax cuts for rich people and spend more on the working class. Independent Ahn’s vision is focused on innovation. “All entities in the market suggest their ideas and resources and then put them together to create value-added products. Once this is done, we can distribute the benefits in a fair and equal manner. If this system is in place, everybody is going to win,” he said. The founder of anti-virus software provider AhnLab said he came up with the idea after seeing the win-win model between software giant Apple and its partner firms. The global giant and start-ups formed a network based on their ideas and creativity and this enabled them to achieve innovation, he explained. He dubbed his economic vision as “two-wheel economics” referring to the policy mix of economic justice and welfare on the one hand and innovative economics on the other hand.