South Korea's signing of a free trade agreement with the European Union will help expedite the ratification of a similar deal by U.S. Congress, South Korean Ambassador Han Duck-soo said Tuesday.
"Negotiations for the FTA with the EU started after we signed the FTA with the U.S., but the implementation of the FTA with the EU is imminent," Han told South Korean lawmakers who were here for an annual parliamentary inspection of the embassy. "That shocked many Americans leading public opinion."
South Korea signed an agreement last week with the EU for the provisional implementation of the bilateral free trade deal from July.
U.S. President Barack Obama, however, has not yet submitted the Korea FTA, signed in 2007, to Congress due to rising protectionist sentiment in the worst recession in decades.
Obama presented a timeline in June when he ordered Trade Representative Ron Kirk to complete talks with South Korea over autos and beef before he flies to Seoul for the G-20 economic summit meeting in November.
"I think the Korea-EU FTA has impressed many Americans because we've shown our commitment to free trade despite many countries leaning toward protectionism in trade due to the ongoing economic crisis," Han said.
The envoy hoped that Seoul and Washington would soon produce an agreement acceptable to both sides for swift ratification of the Korea FTA.
South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon met with Deputy Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis in Paris last week, but they failed to reach an agreement on how to address U.S. concerns over lopsided auto trade and restricted shipment of U.S. beef.
Kim has said that Seoul is ready to address any problems to be raised by the U.S. on non-tariff barriers or unfair trade practices, but added he would not accept the U.S. calls for "a balance in the trade of certain products."
Kirk said recently that he will sideline other issues aside from autos and beef to meet Obama's deadline, despite calls by a number of U.S. industries to revisit clauses on textiles, financial services, investment, labor provisions and even refrigerators.
The chief U.S. trade negotiator, however, has yet to put forth concrete proposals on the auto and beef issues.
The United Auto Workers have called on Congress to delay implementation of tariff reductions on autos and auto parts "until the domestic auto industry has fully recovered" and demanded it "be tied to measurable results in reducing the automotive trade deficit."
The United States exported 5,878 autos to South Korea last year, while South Korean auto shipments to the United States totaled 476,833, according to statistics by the UAW.
Some U.S. politicians want South Korea to allow shipments of beef from cattle of all ages.
The U.S. beef industry, however, has called for a cautious approach due to a possible backlash in the Korean market, which has emerged as the fourth-largest importer of U.S. beef products last year with shipments worth US$ 216 million.
The figure for the first six months of this year was US$ 225 million.
Seoul resumed imports of U.S. beef from cattle under 30 months old in 2008 amid weeks of street protests. -PNA
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