U.S. trade official gets an earful from lawmakers about coming trade pact with South Korea
International Herald Tribune
U.S. trade official gets an earful from lawmakers about coming trade pact with South Korea
The Associated Press
20 March 2007
WASHINGTON: The deputy U.S. Trade Representative faced a largely antagonistic group of lawmakers as he tried to sell the idea that a trade agreement under negotiation with South Korea will be a good deal for the United States.
Members of the House of Representatives’ Ways and Means trade subcommittee complained to Karan Bhatia about the expected U.S. position on a range of important American products, primarily automobiles but also rice, telecommunications, beef, pharmaceuticals, even bourbon.
The panel’s chairman, Rep. Sander Levin, opened the hearing Tuesday by ticking off the problem areas that the agreement will have to cover, the most troubling to him that of Korean restrictions on automobiles. Levin’s district is in Michigan, the home of the struggling U.S. auto industry.
"Korea has had an economic iron curtain against these products, using a combination of tariffs, taxes and regulations," Levin said.
Underlying the hearing Tuesday was the approaching negotiating deadline of March 31, the latest date possible for an agreement to be passed by the U.S. Congress under the so-called fast-track authority rule, which allows President George W. Bush to present it to Congress for a yes-or-no vote without amendments.
The rule expires on June 1 and a free trade-averse Democratic Congress is unlikely to renew it.
"The U.S.-Korea free trade agreement is a key test of the approach we take to trade policy," Levin said. "It is a test specifically of whether we will be active or passive, in the face of long-standing, harmful practices of the Korean government, to discriminate against our products in their domestic market."
Bhatia emphasized the size of the South Korean economy as a major reason Congress should plan to approve the free trade agreement once it is negotiated. The United States has implemented 10 agreements since 2000, and Korea’s would be the largest by far.
He said South Korea, with a $1 trillion (€750 billion) gross domestic product, already is the United States’ 7th largest trading partner; the $78 billion (€58.7 billion) in bilateral trade represents more than 70 percent of the trade among the United States and the other 10 post-2000 FTAs combined.
"A successful FTA with Korea could provide an important boost to U.S. efforts to remain an active economic presence in a strategically vital region," Bhatia said. "It would establish a model that we believe could be replicated with other Asian economies and could help us expand trade liberalization throughout the region."
Most of his questioners on the panel would hear little of that.
Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell spoke of the "so-called free trade agreement" and said it would tell members of the United Auto Workers union, "You’re going to be laid off because of specific imports but will be rehired at a later time when we manufacture those same cars and lay off Korean workers."
Rep. Kendrick Meek, also a Democrat, complained of South Korea’s limit on foreign telecommunications ownership to 49 percent, while the United States allows unlimited participation.
"We have these free-trade agreements, and who are we representing? Are we representing Koreans, or are we representing the great U.S. of A.?" Meek asked.
"I can assure you we are representing the great U.S. of A.," Bhatia replied. "We are pursuing U.S. interests."
Republican Rep. Ron Lewis of Kentucky had concerns about bourbon, a major product from his state that is exported to Korea. He said he wanted to ensure that the free-trade agreement would include guarantees that the Koreans would not produce counterfeit bourbon.
