Obama pledges to press for Korea FTA’s ratification this year
Yonhap News, Korea
Obama pledges to press for Korea FTA’s ratification this year
By Hwang Doo-hyong
11 February 2010
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (Yonhap) — U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday that he will push for congressional approval of the pending free trade agreement with South Korea this year to help create jobs through export growth.
In an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, posted on its Web site, Obama said he "would press for passage this year of free-trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia."
Obama, however, cautioned that "different glitches" must first be negotiated with each country, according to the magazine.
The U.S. president was apparently referring to the imbalance in auto trade and the restricted shipments of U.S. beef to South Korea, the biggest hurdle to the early ratification of the Korea FTA, signed in 2007.
U.S. officials have said they want to address those concerns in side agreements without revising the text of the deal.
South Korea has urged the Obama administration to present the pact to Congress by this summer, fearing any further delay may jeopardize its passage this year due to the politically sensitive mid-term elections in November.
The Korea FTA has been sidelined by health care, financial reform and other more pressing issues, and Obama has said he will seek the right "political timing" for its submission amid protectionist sentiment in Congress in the worst recession in decades.
Obama’s remarks on the Korea FTA’s possible ratification this year come against a changing political landscape, with the Democratic Party feeling the pinch from two-digit unemployment and a delayed economic recovery.
A recent public survey said that the Republican Party is now more popular, with a 48 percent approval rating, than the Democratic Party, with 45 percent, heralding another possible setback for Democrats in the November elections. An upset victory by Scott Brown in Massachusetts last month broke the Democrats’ filibuster-proof super majority in the Senate.
Meanwhile, Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and 30 other Democratic congressmen sent a letter to Obama last week urging him to move quickly to ratify the pending free trade deals, fearing any further delay might hurt the competitiveness of American products abroad.
In his first State of the Union address last month, Obama pledged to enhance trade with South Korea, Colombia and Panama to help fuel the fledgling economic recovery.
"We have to seek new markets aggressively, just as our competitors are," Obama said. "If America sits on the sidelines while other nations sign trade deals, we will lose the chance to create jobs on our shores. That’s why we will continue to shape a Doha trade agreement that opens global markets, and why we will strengthen our trade relations in Asia and with key partners like South Korea, Panama, and Colombia."
South Korea and India put a free trade deal into effect last month, and Seoul hopes to ratify another deal with the European Union, signed last year, that will take effect this coming summer.
Obama also said in the interview that he and his administration have pursued a "fundamentally business-friendly" agenda and are "fierce advocates" for the free market.
"The irony is, is that on the left we are perceived as being in the pockets of big business; and then on the business side, we are perceived as being anti-business," Obama said, noting the auto bailout program, which he described as a "very politically unpopular decision that was made that, from my vantage point, is pro-business."
Obama also said he will continue pressing China for the revaluation of its currency to help boost American exports.
