Kirk pledges to seek new solutions on Korea FTA By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Yonhap) -- The top U.S. trade negotiator said Thursday that he will seek new solutions to the pending free trade agreement with South Korea before bringing it to Congress for ratification.

Ron Kirk did not elaborate on the new solutions in a speech to Georgetown
University in Washington, D.C., but U.S. officials and experts have talked about
"creative ways" of avoiding renegotiation of the Korea FTA, signed in 2007, by
way of side agreements on the sensitive auto and beef issues.
"We're looking for new solutions to the issues that have dragged on in existing
free trade agreements," Kirk said. "And we are continuing our dialogue on issues
related to the Korea free trade agreement, too."
Kirk's remarks come on the heels of the summit between Presidents Lee Myung-bak
and Barack Obama early this month in London at which they "agreed that the
U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement could bring benefits to both countries and
committed to working together to chart a way forward."
South Korean and U.S. officials are to meet here next month to follow up on the
summit, the first between the two leaders, and discuss congressional approval of
the Korea FTA ahead of Lee's U.S. visit in June.
Kirk said he will reject protectionism and support a rules-based trading system
in dealing with the Korea FTA.
"It's the kind of trade policy that's good for our partners, and is also good for
America. That's the attitude we have to take toward trade," he said. "As United
States trade representative, that's the metric I am using as I review our
existing trade deals... and as I seek a way forward on the Colombia and Korea
FTAs as well."
Senators Max Baucus (D-Montana) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to
Obama earlier this week to urge him to expedite work on ratification of the Korea
FTA to shore up the bilateral alliance, under pressure from North Korea's nuclear
and long-range missile threats.
South Korea's National Assembly foreign affairs and trade committee Wednesday
approved the FTA with the U.S. in a prelude to possible ratification by the
plenary parliamentary session in June.
South Korean officials have said they would not renegotiate it, and hope that the
upcoming Lee-Obama summit will make a breakthrough on the auto and beef issues.
Kirk said last month that he "will promptly, but effectively, address the issues"
on the imbalance in auto trade and South Korea's ban on shipments of beef from
cattle older than 30 months, with priority placed on beef.
Obama has taken issue with what he has called lopsided auto trade, although South
Korea disputes the U.S. figures, which include hundreds of thousands of autos
produced by Hyundai Motor's plant in Alabama.
Obama recently ordered the U.S. automaker GM to come forward with a new
restructuring plan by June 1 and told Chrysler to merge with Fiat by May 1 if it
wants to get additional government bailout funds.
Some experts say that restructuring the auto industry will help promote
congressional approval of the trade deal despite growing protectionism in the
Democrat-controlled Congress, which fears the deal would undermine support from
local trade unions, a key political base, due to possible job cuts during the
worst recession in decades.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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