|
Obama not likely to move for Korea FTA's ratification this year: scholar
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, March 15 (Yonhap) -- The Obama administration will not likely move for ratification of the pending free trade deal with South Korea this year due to health care reform, the economy and other more pressing issues, a scholar said Monday.
The question is "where it will rank in priority compared to health care, climate change, education reform and stimulus packages," said Michael Green, senior adviser and Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, at a forum here. "I think probably the conventional wisdom in town is that the administration is not going to try to do much, frankly, on the legislative side, before the midterm elections. And people in Australia and Asia will know that."
Green was discussing the KORUS FTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) the U.S. is set to sign with Australia and several other Asian economies to help prop up the U.S. economy, struggling with the worst recession in decades, ahead of President Barack Obama's upcoming trip to Australia and Indonesia.
| 
Home
