Korea Trade

Congress has passed free-trade agreements with Panama, South Korea and Colombia, overriding objections from liberal Democrats to advance a key priority for both the White House and congressional leaders. Backers have billed the deals as job generators that will open up major markets to American businesses and level the playing field for workers. The agreements, originally negotiated by the Bush administration, faced firm opposition from labor groups, progressives and lawmakers from the Rust Belt protective of U.S. manufacturers.

Representatives of the Republic of Korea, including Assistant Minister for Trade Policy Un-Suh Park, held a trade fair in Los Angeles last week to promote trade between California and the Asian nation, and to explain the trade benefits of Korean economic reforms. The value of Korean exports to California ports has declined since 1988, reflecting an overall decline in Korean exports to the United States.

On the eve of President Obama's expected push for American competitiveness in his State of the Union speech, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce kicked off a lobbying campaign in Los Angeles to push the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. Its most unusual feature: close cooperation between the business group and the White House. The trade deal, which would be the largest since NAFTA took effect in 1994, has provided the first notes of harmony between the Obama administration and the chamber, whose relationship has been strained almost since the moment Obama took office.

Congress has passed free-trade agreements with Panama, South Korea and Colombia, overriding objections from liberal Democrats to advance a key priority for both the White House and congressional leaders. Backers have billed the deals as job generators that will open up major markets to American businesses and level the playing field for workers. The agreements, originally negotiated by the Bush administration, faced firm opposition from labor groups, progressives and lawmakers from the Rust Belt protective of U.S. manufacturers.

U.S. and South Korean officials today abruptly broke off talks without explanation on a package of proposals aimed at easing trade friction between the two countries. Assistant Deputy Trade Representative Sandra Kristoff led a delegation of nine U.S. officials on what was scheduled as four days of talks with 20 Koreans on American demands for market reform.

North Korea today swiftly countered a South Korean challenge to temporarily open its heavily fortified border, laying down strict conditions before Koreans could walk between the two halves of their nation. Pyongyang imposed the conditions less than 10 hours after South Korean President Roh Tae Woo made the offer to open the border for five days centered around Korean independence day on Aug. 15.

More than 600 North Korean art works have arrived in South Korea, marking the first direct trade between the two rival Korean states, government officials said Sunday. The paintings and pottery, worth $104,000, were imported by Daewoo Corp. of Seoul in a deal with a North Korean trading firm, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

President Bush and South Korean President Roh Tae Woo engaged in sharp verbal sparring Tuesday over South Korea's trade restrictions after Roh arrived at the White House seeking more time for his country to open its markets to American goods. Roh, in a metaphorical plea for delay, told the President: "If an apple is picked before it's ripe, it can be a bit tough and sour. When it's ripe, however, it's nice and sweet."

Even before the deterioration last year of already tenuous relations between North and South Korea, Pyongyang was suffering from a severe foreign trade slump, analysts say. The decline in trade, attributed in large part to international sanctions over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, was the largest for the reclusive nation since 1998, according to a new report by Seoul-based Korea Finance Corp. Total North Korean trade amounted to $3.41 billion in 2009, down 10.6% from 2008, the report says.

Even before the deterioration last year of already tenuous relations between North and South Korea, Pyongyang was suffering from a severe foreign trade slump, analysts say. The decline in trade, attributed in large part to international sanctions over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, was the largest for the reclusive nation since 1998, according to a new report by Seoul-based Korea Finance Corp. Total North Korean trade amounted to $3.41 billion in 2009, down 10.6% from 2008, the report says.

The United States and South Korea on Friday completed a long-sought trade deal that could help boost the struggling U.S. economy by further opening one of Asia's top markets to American companies. The key to the pact, which eluded President Obama when he visited South Korea last month, was working out disagreements on access to both markets by automakers. The agreement has long been supported by other business sectors, including the entertainment industry. The agreement pumps up intellectual property protection, and it prevents South Korea from increasing most of its current content restrictions for film and TV programming.

Song Myoung-geun is a hard-driving car dealer pushing Fords to South Korean buyers. He's so good at his job that last year he ranked third nationwide in personal sales for the U.S.-made vehicles. The bad news: He moved 72 cars in 12 months, a rate that surely would win no awards in the United States. By comparison, the top Hyundai salesman here sold 357 vehicles and the maker's third-place finisher sold 264. Song's plight shows the challenge of selling foreign-made automobiles with their added taxes in a nation determined to peddle homegrown brands.

At a time when the United States desperately needs to boost exports and create jobs, America's free-trade pact with South Korea offers the promise of doing both, say many analysts and businesses especially on the West Coast. But the long-stalled agreement isn't likely to get ratified any time soon -- despite renewed hopes from President Obama's trip to Asia this month and the threat that South Korea's pending trade deal with the European Union could soon put U.S. exporters at a competitive disadvantage.

The Obama administration is prepared to halt North Korean ships on the high seas to carry out the newest United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang's arms trade, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. said Friday. Susan Rice said the United States would intensify its scrutiny of North Korea's trade in banned weapons, and if U.S. commanders suspect a ship is carrying them, "we are prepared to confront that vessel." Rice's comments to reporters at the White House came soon after the U.N.

South Korea and the United States reached a deal today that could increase their annual $72-billion trade by more than $20 billion, officials from both countries said. The agreement follows nine months of talks between the U.S. and Asia's third-largest economy, and comes in time to allow the Bush administration to use fast-track trade legislation that expires June 30. The legislation allows the president to negotiate trade pacts that Congress may approve or reject, but not alter.

On the eve of President Obama's expected push for American competitiveness in his State of the Union speech, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce kicked off a lobbying campaign in Los Angeles to push the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. Its most unusual feature: close cooperation between the business group and the White House. The trade deal, which would be the largest since NAFTA took effect in 1994, has provided the first notes of harmony between the Obama administration and the chamber, whose relationship has been strained almost since the moment Obama took office.

Song Myoung-geun is a hard-driving car dealer pushing Fords to South Korean buyers. He's so good at his job that last year he ranked third nationwide in personal sales for the U.S.-made vehicles. The bad news: He moved 72 cars in 12 months, a rate that surely would win no awards in the United States. By comparison, the top Hyundai salesman here sold 357 vehicles and the maker's third-place finisher sold 264. Song's plight shows the challenge of selling foreign-made automobiles with their added taxes in a nation determined to peddle homegrown brands.

In the vintage style of noisy South Korean protests, tens of thousands of people wearing red bandannas filled the plaza in front of City Hall on Wednesday, banging drums and chanting in opposition to a proposed free trade pact with the United States. The protests took place as U.S. and South Korean negotiators met under heavy security at a hotel in a second round of talks on the pact.

Twice a day, long lines of trucks filled with fruit, small appliances, potatoes and rice wend their way for several blocks along Binjiang Zhonglu Street before negotiating a sharp turn onto the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge leading into North Korea.