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2009-11-20 China-Japan-Koreas

Lee, Obama Vow to Ratify FTA Next Year

President Lee Myung-bak and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama in a meeting at Cheong Wa Dae on Thursday agreed to try and ratify an epically delayed bilateral free trade agreement next year.

A Cheong Wa Dae official said, "President Lee spoke about a time frame [for ratification] that we wanted and President Obama said he understood Korea's position and said he would make an effort, but they decided not to include that in their official announcement due to concerns such comments could upset U.S. lawmakers."

In an interview with Fox News in Beijing before flying over to Korea, Obama said, "The question is whether we can get it done in the beginning of 2010, whether we can get it done at the end of 2010. There are still some details that need to be worked out."

"We have put our teams in place to make sure that we are covering all the issues that might be a barrier to final ratification of the agreement," Obama said in a joint press conference with Lee after the summit. "And one of my goals is to... make sure that we can create the kind of win-win situation that I know President Lee is interested in seeing as well."

Lee said, "President Obama and I talked about in detail again how to move forward this agreement. If there are any problems in the automobile sector... then we are ready to resolve this issue."

Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon later told reporters this did not mean there will be a renegotiation of the FTA or a revision of the wording of the contract, but that Korea is willing to listen to U.S. concerns and try to come up with solutions or explanations. But it appears that Seoul cannot rule additional discussions over the automotive portion.

Posted by Steve White 2009-11-20 00:00|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [308 views ] Top

#1 So, the brains of the administration figure the dollar will tank far enough by next year, that manufacturing will actually be cheaper in the US than Asia?

Posted by Procopius2k 2009-11-20 08:00|| 2009-11-20 08:00|| Front Page Top

#2 that manufacturing will actually be cheaper in the US than Asia?

Sure it will. The moment American wages fall to $200/month equivalent. At least Chinese real wages are rising while American trade policy favoring the financial class have caused Americans' real wages to stagnate for the last 40 years.

Posted by ed 2009-11-20 08:23|| 2009-11-20 08:23|| Front Page Top

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