The conservative Grand National Party had said it would try to pass the trade bill this week, adding pressure on the main opposition Democratic Party to accept what had been its initiative, negotiated and signed when it was in power in 2007.
"We have done all we conscientiously could to try to listen to the Democratic Party's demands," GNP chairman of the parliamentary trade committee, Nam Kyung-pil said. "But a renegotiation is just not possible."
The Democratic Party has demanded a renegotiation with the United States to fix what it said was an imbalance in national interests. The two sides reworked the deal last year to address U.S. automakers' concerns that the original pact would not help open the South Korean market quickly enough.
The ruling GNP has a comfortable parliamentary majority to pass bills but has been unwilling to risk political damage by pushing the trade bill through ahead of a general parliamentary and presidential elections next year.
Pressure has been on the South Korean government of President Lee Myung-bak to get the pact ratified by parliament after the U.S. Congress approved it two weeks ago and President Barack Obama signed it with two other U.S. trade deals.
The deal was the biggest U.S. trade pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect in 1994.
Some studies said the deal could boost $67 billion two-way trade between the allies by as much as a quarter. Despite charges that it gives the U.S. auto industry a major inroad into the South Korean market, Korean car makers stand to gain with a swift and greater access to the United States.
U.S. farmers are expected to be big winners under the agreement, with more than $1.8 billion a year in increased exports to South Korea.
The bill faces tough resistance by South Korean farmers who back a politically powerful lobby. They say government assurances of protecting their livelihood fall far short. (Reuters)
