The Better Reason Kaesong Is a No Go
Without resorting to the human rights card, the European Union business lobby has found a way to stymie FTA talks with the ROK, because of an unfair mix of politics and trade.
BusinessEurope fears EU employers would be at a disadvantage if goods produced at South Korean factories in Kaesong were classed as southern-made, it said.
In a letter, BusinessEurope's secretary-general Philippe de Buck, asked David O'Sullivan, head of the European Commission's trade directorate, which is leading trade talks with Seoul, to ensure Kaesong is excluded, it said.
«I would like to express our concerns about the risk of unfair competition from products manufactured in the Kaesong industrial zone in North Korea - an area which is likely to remain off-limits for European companies given the current political situation in that country,» de Buck was quoted as saying.
South Korea sees Kaesong as a flagship project to reform the North's moribund economy and ease the massive costs of any eventual reunification.
No matter what the ROK Constitution says about the boundaries of the Korean state, the EU still finds the DMZ more legitimate. Seoul will just have to reform its economy the hard way...by itself.
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