Thousands of protestors marched through Seoul Saturday, calling for lawmakers to reject a major free trade deal with the United States. The biggest free trade deal for the US since the 1993 North America Free Trade Agreement has left many local workers and farmers fearing for their jobs and futures.
Carrying banners and flags, the protesters walked about a mile (1.5 kilometres) from a public park to a plaza outside the City Hall, where they sat down on the pavement and held a candlelit rally. "We don't need US mad-cow beef. Give it to (US President George W.) Bush," chanted around 6,000 protesters.
They demanded that the South Korean government rip up the agreement and that President Roh Moo-Hyun steps down. "We will have no future under the FTA," Lee Suk-Haeng, head of the hardline Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), said in a speech before the march started. He said the KCTU, boasting of 800,000 members hired, would lead a nation-wide campaign to press the National Assembly not to ratify the deal in September.
Thousands of riot police set up barricades with more than 100 police buses to keep the protesters away from an intersection leading to the US embassy and the office of the president, but there was no immediate report of any clashes.
South Korea's ban on US beef was one of the most contentious issues in the 10-month-old negotiations, which were wrapped up on Monday without the full reopening of the Asian country's beef market.
US officials have warned that Washington would not sign the agreement unless Seoul allowed full access to American beef imports. South Korea was a major market for American beef - worth an annual 850 million dollars - before a 2003 import ban imposed over fears of mad cow disease.
Seoul last year agreed to accept US boneless beef but rejected three shipments after discovering tiny bone fragments. South Korea has pushed for the pact despite strong opposition from workers and farmers who fear for the loss of their incomes and jobs if US goods gain unfettered access to the domestic market. Agriculture - in particular rice and beef - and the auto industry were the main areas of contention.
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