U.S. committed to Korea FTA’s ratification : Clinton
Yonhap News, Korea
U.S. committed to Korea FTA’s ratification : Clinton
By Hwang Doo-hyong
25 February 2010
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (Yonhap) — The Barack Obama administration is committed to the ratification of the pending free trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday.
"As President Obama said in his State of the Union address last month, we are committed to these Free Trade Agreements, and we hope that we can begin a process of consultation and consensus building within the Congress," Clinton told a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. "I personally believe it’s a very important issue."
In his first State of the Union address last month, 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, and that’s why we will strengthen our trade relations in Asia and with key partners like South Korea, Panama, and Colombia."
Obama also said last week he "would press for passage this year of free-trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia" to help create jobs through export growth, although he cautioned that "different glitches" must first be resolved with each country.
Clinton’s remarks echoed Obama’s a day earlier.
Speaking to a forum here Wednesday, Obama pledged to "work to resolve outstanding issues, so that we can move forward on trade agreements with key partners like South Korea, Panama and Colombia,"
At issue are the imbalance in auto trade and restricted shipments of U.S. beef to South Korea.
The U.S. wants to address the auto and beef issues in side agreements without revising the text of the deal.
South Korea is calling for the Korea FTA’s ratification by this summer, fearing that 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.
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis, meanwhile, told a gathering at the Georgetown University Law Center here that his office will address the auto and beef issues before deliberation of the Korea FTA for ratification.
"Korea has a long history of applying non-tariff barriers to American automakers that we must address before moving this agreement forward for approval," he said. "The Obama administration is working to make sure U.S. carmakers and auto workers get a fair shake in Korea. And on the basis of addressing these and other concerns we look forward to implementing a U.S.-Korea free trade agreement that will be our most economically significant in over a decade."
Marantis also touched on beef.
Ratification, he said, "will also require additional progress on beef with Korea - an issue I think about every time I have a steak. While Korea in 2008 agreed to a beef import protocol in line with science and international standards, other Asian markets have yet to do so."
Apparently referring to South Korea’s ban on shipment of beef from cattle over 30 months old, the U.S. official said, "Yet one of the internationally agreed principles that governs global agriculture trade is that science should guide food safety regulations and import rules. In this case, science time and again has shown U.S. beef and beef products to be safe."
