힐러리, “오바마 한.미FTA 반대”..재협상 시사
“필요할 경우 북한 관리 만날 수 있다”
출처 : 연합뉴스 2009/01/14 11:43
(워싱턴=연합뉴스) 박상현 특파원= 힐러리 클린턴 미국 국무장관 후보자는 13일 한.미 자유무역협정(FTA)의 일부 내용이 공정한 무역조건을 확보하는데 실패했다면서 핵심 조항에 대해 재협상의 필요성을 지적했다.
또 힐러리는 김계관 외무상 등 북한 관리를 평양 등에서 만날 용의가 있느냐는 질문에 “미국 국익에 도움이 된다면 적절한 시기와 장소에서 어느 누구든 만날 의향이 있다고 밝혔다.
힐러리는 이날 상원 외교위원회의 인준청문회를 앞두고 제출한 서면답변 자료에서 이같은 입장을 밝혔다.
그는 “오바마 당선인은 부시 행정부가 협상했던 한.미FTA를 반대했고 지금도 계속 반대 입장”이라면서 “서비스와 기술 분야 등 일부 유리한 내용이 있지만 자동차 등의 분야에서는 공정한 무역조건을 확보하는데 실패했으며 쇠고기 수출에서도 우려할 점이 있다”고 지적했다.
그는 미국 상품이 한국시장에 접근하는 것을 막는 불투명한 조치에 대한 우려가 오래전부터 제기됐지만 한미FTA에서는 이런 문제점을 개선하지 못했다고 주장하면서 이대로 협정을 비준하면 한국의 비관세 장벽에 대해 미국이 대응할 수 있는 지렛대를 잃어버리게 된다고 강조했다.
힐러리는 “따라서 한국이 이런 조항에 재협상할 뜻을 가지고 있다면, 미국이 합의를 이끌어내기 위해 함께 노력하겠다”는 입장을 밝혔다.
북한 방문 의향이 있는지 여부에 대한 질문에 힐러리는 “북한 방문에 관해서는 결정된 것이 없다”고 밝히고 “오바마 당선인과 마찬가지로 나 자신도 미국의 이익을 증진시킬 수 있다면 적절한 시기에 북한의 외교당국자와 기꺼이 만날 것”이라고 말했다.
힐러리는 그러면서도 북핵 문제에 관한한 단호한 입장을 분명히 했다. 그는 “북한은 합의한 대로 핵개발과 핵 활동을 완전하고 검증 가능한 방법으로 폐기해야 하며 그렇지 않을 경우 우리는 강한 제재를 가할 것”이라면서 “북한이 의무를 이행하지 않는다면 미국은 어떤 양보도 하지 않을 것이며 해제했던 제재도 다시 가하고 새로운 제재도 고려할 것”이라고 강조했다.
shpark@yna.co.kr
(끝)
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[참고] Smooth Senate hearing seen for Hillary Clinton
출처 : 로이터통신 – Tue Jan 13, 6:03 am ET
By Arshad Mohammed Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sen. Hillary Clinton is expected to win easy confirmation as U.S. secretary of state but will face questions about her husband’s foreign business dealings when she appears before a congressional committee on Tuesday.
Clinton’s testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be scrutinized for clues on how U.S. President-elect Barack Obama may approach Iran, Iraq, North Korea and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when he takes office on January 20.
Obama surprised many by tapping his former rival for the presidency to become his secretary of state, selecting a political heavyweight who won more than 18 million votes in the Democratic primaries before dropping out of the race.
Analysts said there was little doubt about the Senate’s ultimate approval of the former first lady to be the top U.S. diplomat. Clinton, who was elected in 2006 to a second term as a New York senator, is expected to benefit from the tradition of senatorial courtesy toward fellow senators appointed to high office.
“We have great confidence in her ability to do the job well,” Sen. John Kerry, the committee’s Democratic chairman who was himself once viewed as a candidate for secretary of state, told Reuters. “I think she will be overwhelmingly confirmed.”
Analysts said members of the committee will ask about the business and philanthropic dealings of Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, but they said they did not expect that to derail her nomination.
“She is going to have prepared answers for all those questions,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “At a certain point, the Republicans are going to let it go.”
To preempt concerns about potential conflicts of interest, Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation in December made public its donors, which include Saudi Arabia, Norway and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
NO SURPRISES EXPECTED
Democratic sources have said the former president offered to allow ethics reviews of his future business and charitable activities should his wife serve as secretary of state.
“We don’t expect surprises,” said Andy Fisher, a spokesman for Sen. Dick Lugar of Indiana, the panel’s senior Republican. “There certainly will be questions on the Clinton foundation, and also on every corner of the world, as there always are for the confirmation hearing for the secretary of state.”
Among the top issues likely to be raised is the military offensive that Israel launched in the Gaza Strip on December 27 with the stated goal of ending Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel.
Obama has said little about the conflict, stressing there is only one U.S. president at a time. However, on Sunday he said it was vital “to be engaged and involved immediately” in the search for Middle East peace.
Critics accuse President George W. Bush of having largely neglected the dispute until his final year in office, when his push for a peace deal by the end of 2008 ended in failure.
Bush also was faulted for initial reluctance to deal directly with North Korea and Iran to try to curb their nuclear ambitions.
Obama has said he is willing to open a dialogue with Iran and has suggested the possibility of presidential engagement with senior Iranian officials, a stance that Clinton dismissed as “naive” during the presidential primaries.
Analysts said that senators likely will search in vain for differences between Obama’s and Clinton’s foreign policy views, saying these were magnified on the campaign trail and will be minimized on Tuesday.
“Even when they disagreed, it was as much about instincts, style, tone as anything else,” said Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution.
(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Bill Trott)