Trade ministers from S. Korea, U.S to meet next week over free trade pact

SEOUL, May 7 (Yonhap) -- The top trade officials from South Korea and the United
States will meet next week to discuss how to gain ratification of a bilateral
free trade agreement (FTA) reached in 2007, officials here said Thursday.
The planned meeting in Washington between South Korean Trade Minister Kim
Jong-hoon and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk comes after the leaders of the
two nations agreed in London early last month that the free trade deal, dubbed
the KORUS FTA, could bring benefits to both countries and committed to working
together to chart a way forward.
Kirk recently said that he will seek "new solutions" to the pending FTA with
South Korea before bringing it to Congress for ratification, adding that he will
"promptly, but effectively" address 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.
However, South Korea has reiterated that it will not renegotiate the pending free
trade agreement with the U.S., although it is ready to discuss U.S. complaints on
auto and beef provisions.
South Korea's National Assembly foreign affairs and trade committee has approved
the FTA with the U.S. in a prelude to possible ratification by the plenary
parliamentary session in June.
The two countries signed the trade pact in June 2007 after nearly a year of
sometimes challenging negotiations. It still awaits ratification in the
legislatures of both countries.
If ratified, the bill -- labeled as the biggest such deal since the 1994 North
American Free Trade Agreement and the biggest ever for South Korea -- will knock
down tariff and non-tariff barriers between the two economies, which did US$84.8
billion in two-way trade in 2008.
sam@yna.co.kr
(END)