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Seoul and Washington signed the free trade accord aimed at tearing down trade barriers between the two sides in June last year after 10 months of tough negotiations, but it is still awaiting parliamentary ratification.
To give a boost to the long-delayed ratification, South Korea agreed last month to fully open its market to U.S. beef, which was widely considered here as a political concession to win stronger U.S. security commitments during a summit between the two countries’ presidents on April 18-19.
The Bush administration had insisted that the reopening of Seoul's market to U.S. beef was a key precondition for the U.S. Congress ratification, pointing out that South Korea was the third-largest export market for U.S. beef behind Japan and Mexico.
But the beef import decision, which came just hours ahead of the summit at Camp David, has sparked public concerns about the safety of the U.S. meat, which has been banned from entering South Korea since a U.S. outbreak of mad cow disease in 2003.
A scare over mad cow disease quickly spread throughout the country, fueled by local media reports that South Koreans are more genetically susceptible than Americans and Europeans to the human form of the deadly animal disease.
Students, mothers, and civic activists have staged protest rallies against U.S. beef almost every day since early this month, mainly out of fears that school meals will be the major destination for cheap U.S. beef.
Some liberal activists called for the conservative, pro-U.S. President Lee Myung-bak to step down, accusing him of sacrificing public health for improved economic and political ties with Washington.
An online petition calling for Lee's impeachment has received over 1.3 million signatures, with his popularity plunging to 28 percent, a record low for a new president. Lee has been in office just three months.
On the back of the public outcry, opposition lawmakers who dominate the National Assembly have vowed to block ratification of the FTA with the United States unless Lee's government renegotiates the U.S. beef deal to toughen import regulations.
A two-day parliamentary hearing on the FTA this week was overshadowed by the beef dispute, and failed to present the deal even to the Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee, raising doubts about its ratification.
In the face of mounting public criticism, the Agriculture Ministry delayed the resumption of beef imports, slated for this week, by up to 10 days to consider protest petitions.
But the delay has irritated U.S. lawmakers who have said Congress would not approve the FTA unless Seoul fully opens its market to American beef.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who is traveling to Seoul to push forward with the free trade deal, described the delay as "unfortunate."
In a press conference on Friday, Gutierrez dismissed calls for a renegotiation of the beef deal. "We don't believe the agreement (on beef) needs to be renegotiated," he said.
Instead, the commerce secretary struggled to dispel the scare over mad cow disease, saying U.S. beef has "the highest standard of quality and safety in the world, second to none."
"The beef which we will be selling to Korea is the same beef that we all buy in the U.S., that we feed our children in the U.S. and is the same beef that Korean-Americans eat in the U.S.," he said.
He called for Seoul's quick ratification of the FTA, not to lose the "tremendous opportunity," saying the U.S. Congress would also approve the deal once it comes to a vote.
The free trade deal seems vital to the South Korean economy, which is heavily dependent on exports. The total volume of its external trade amounts to 70 percent of the country's gross domestic product. The United States is South Korea's third-largest market after China and the European Union.
In a bid to jump on the free-trade bandwagon, which could ensure great benefits to its export-driven economy, South Korea has been pushing for as many free trade deals as possible.
Under a campaign to transform the country into "an FTA hub" linking Europe, Asia and the American continent, Seoul is now under negotiations with the European Union and wants to strike a deal within this year.
Gutierrez dubbed the South Korea-U.S. free trade deal as a "model for the future" that will "set the standards" for future free-trade rounds by other countries.
"Enactment of our agreement with Korea would be a significant accomplishment for both countries, and would be the realization of our shared commitment to open market, free trade and democracy worldwide," Gutierrez said in a separate speech to a group of American and South Korean business leaders in Seoul.