South Korea & US Moving To Finalize Free-Trade Deal
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The Obama administration has announced that it would ask Congress to ratify a long-stalled free-trade agreement with South Korea after the midterm elections in November.
The decision, which risks angering labor unions and their Congressional supporters, was announced after a meeting with the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak at the G-20 meeting in Toronto.
Mr. Obama’s aides said they would try to resolve lingering issues by the time of the next G-20 leaders’ talks,
The Obama administration has announced that it would ask Congress to ratify a long-stalled free-trade agreement with South Korea after the midterm elections in November.
The decision, which risks angering labor unions and their Congressional supporters, was announced after a meeting with the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak at the G-20 meeting in Toronto.
Mr. Obama’s aides said they would try to resolve lingering issues by the time of the next G-20 leaders’ talks,
to be held in Seoul, South Korea, in November, and present the deal to Congress shortly after the November elections.
“We very much welcome and thank President Obama for proposing a date for us to look forward to, and we will work towards that date and objectives,” Mr. Lee said.
A top White House official said the administration was committed to removing two significant obstacles — Korean restrictions on auto and beef imports — to ratification of the agreement.
The United States trade representative, Ron Kirk, said he planned to promptly initiate talks with his Korean counterpart, Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon, but also pledged to consult with Congress in carrying out the negotiations.
President George W. Bush’s administration concluded the agreement in June 2007,
but the Democratic leadership in Congress has not acted on it, nor has the Obama administration pressed the issue until now.
“President Obama’s leadership in breaking down barriers to commerce couldn’t come at a better time,”
said Vikram S. Pandit, the chief executive of Citigroup, who leads a coalition of businesses that have urged ratification of the agreement.
He said that the agreement “should lead to increased trade and investments, driving growth and job creation to fuel our economic recovery.”
Response from Congress was mixed.
Representative Sander M. Levin, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said that the agreement as negotiated by the Bush administration
“does not effectively address the regulatory and tax barriers that have led to one-way trade and hurt our industrial sector as well as kept out our beef.”
Mr. Levin, Democrat of Michigan, added:
“Congress expects to be consulted actively in these negotiations, and the date targeted by the president can be met only if the outstanding issues are fully addressed with enforceable commitments.”
Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee,
said he would support ratification as long as “the unscientific barriers Korea has erected against American beef” were removed.
And Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, the top Republican on Ways and Means Committee, said he too welcomed the decision.
“I hope that this process will provide us an opportunity to address market access for autos and beef and increase the value of the trading relationship,” he said.
The South Korea free-trade agreement is one of three — the others are Colombia and Panama — that were completed under the Bush administration.
Neither the Obama administration nor Congressional Democrats have moved to complete the accords, it was reported in this article in the New York Times.
In the case of the Latin American countries, labor groups have cited a variety of objections concerning the treatment of union workers.
In the case of South Korea, the United Automobile Workers union and Ford have asserted that South Korea has not provided the United States with sufficient market access for American auto exports.
General Motors and Chrysler, which have made headway in the Korean market, have supported ratification.
The European Union recently completed a free-trade accord with South Korea, and Canada is close to a similar deal.
