YONHAP NEWS

Obama urged to expedite Korea FTA's ratification or lose competitive edge

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (Yonhap) -- The biggest lobbying group for U.S. businesses Monday called on the Barack Obama administration to press for early ratification of the pending free trade agreement with South Korea, noting that Korea is forging trade pacts with U.S. competitors.

   John Murphy, vice president of U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said he fears that any further delay of congressional approval of the Korea FTA will undermine the competitiveness of U.S. products abroad. He pointed to Colombia as well as South Korea.

   "While Canada and the European Union move forward with their own trade agreements with those two countries, we estimate that the Canadians and Europeans will implement their free trade agreements with Colombia and Korea sometime around the end of next year," Murphy said. "The result will be a powerful competitive disadvantage for American companies and workers."

   South Korea recently initialed a Free Trade Agreement with the EU, and is actively seeking similar pacts with China, Japan, Canada, Colombia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and several other countries.

   "If the United States fails to advance its trade agenda, American workers will pay a price and lose jobs," Murphy said. "There is no time for delay. If we fail to move forward with the trade agenda, the upshot will be more loss of jobs. Nearly half a million American jobs will be at risk if we fail to move forward specifically with the Korea and Colombia FTAs, 380,000 lost jobs and US$40 billion in lost export sales."

   Independent studies show the implementation of the FTA with Korea, the seventh biggest trading partner for the U.S., will create 240,000 jobs and increase annual two-way trade by more than US$20 billion from the current $83 billion.

   Last week in Seoul, Obama was upbeat on the possible ratification of the FTA.

   At a joint news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Obama said he is ready to deal with South Korea separately from other Asian countries, such as China, which has been accumulating a huge surplus in trade with the U.S.

   Lee, for his part, said he was willing to discuss the imbalance in auto trade, the biggest barrier to the ratification of the deal signed in June 2007.

   The two leaders discussed the FTA at length during about two hours, South Korean officials said.

   At the end of the talks, Obama told Lee that he was pleased to have more tools to persuade Congress, Seoul officials said.

   They noted that Lee told Obama that South Korea's trade surplus with the U.S. was just about $8 billion, far less than those of China and Japan, and that the U.S. deficit is easily neutralized once the U.S. surplus with South Korea in finance is included.

   Obama expressed concerns in Seoul over "the incredible trade imbalances" that the U.S. has experienced in recent decades, but added, "Those imbalances are not as prominent with Korea."

   Regarding ratification of the FTA, Obama also told Fox News last week, "The question is whether we can get it done in the beginning of 2010, whether we can get it done at the end of 2010. There's still some details that need to be worked out."

   South Korea has said it wants Congress to approve the deal by next summer, emphasizing that failure to do so could push ratification to after 2011 because of congressional elections next November.

   South Korea's foreign affairs and trade committee of the National Assembly has approved the pact and the ruling Grand National Party, which has the majority of seats in parliament, is set to bring it to the full Assembly for ratification as soon as Congress moves.

   U.S. trade officials have said they want to address U.S. concerns over the imbalance in auto trade and restricted shipments of beef, possibly in side agreements without revising the text of the deal.

   Some Democrats in Congress, supported by labor unions, fear the deal could bring job losses amid the worst recession in decades as Obama has been focusing on health care reform and the wars in Afghanistan and Iran.

   hdh@yna.co.kr
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