Song Eon-seog, floor leader of the People Power Party, on the 27th criticized President Lee Jae-myung and the Democratic Party of Korea for ignoring the National Assembly ratification process over U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise tariff hike, saying they are responsible.
Song said at a floor countermeasure meeting held at the National Assembly this morning that the situation over the tariff hike clearly shows how unstable the structure of the Korea-U.S. tariff agreement, which the Lee Jae-myung administration had touted as an achievement, is built on.
He explained, the tariff agreement concluded last year was clearly designed to retroactively cut tariffs to the point when a bill is submitted to the National Assembly, but with no clear agreement on a ratification deadline, it laid bare a vulnerable structure in which retaliatory tariff hikes could be imposed at President Trump's discretion.
He added, regarding last year's Korea-U.S. tariff agreement, our party repeatedly emphasized that National Assembly ratification should come first, and it was only natural to introduce and pass a bill if needed after ratification, but the government and ruling party said National Assembly ratification was unnecessary.
He went on to say, ultimately, the responsibility for this entire situation lies with President Lee Jae-myung and the government, which concluded a major trade agreement requiring National Assembly ratification and have disregarded the ratification process, adding that above all, since the Democratic Party's introduction of a special bill on investment in the United States in late November last year, the government has made no demands or requests of the National Assembly on this matter.
Song proposed meeting quickly with the government and the ruling party to put their heads together to resolve the situation, and said he proposes opening an emergency interpellation session at the National Assembly immediately to assess the state of trade with the United States.
Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok also said on Facebook that the government and ruling party should have clarified whether the Korea-U.S. tariff agreement is a "treaty" requiring National Assembly ratification or an "MOU," making the legal nature of the accord more explicit, and stressed that if it was a memorandum of understanding that did not require ratification, why could the United States use "refusal to approve" as grounds for retaliation? Conversely, if ratification was required, why try to circumvent it with a special law? Either way, the public and the opposition are not receiving accurate information.
He continued, President Trump's unpredictability is nothing new, but that is why the legal nature of the accord should have been made clearer, adding that autos are a backbone industry tied to hundreds of thousands of jobs, and if a 25% tariff persists, a 0.5 percentage point drop in GDP is expected, and the government's ambiguity must not become a pretext for crisis.