G-20 Summit: Obama Faces Setbacks as Economic Meeting Begins
South Korea's free trade accord stalled still as China fights back on currency.
SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 11, 2010 — -- At the Blue House presidential office and residence Thursday, where he appeared with South Korean President Lee Myng-bak, President Obama tried to put a positive spin today on his team's failure to push the South Koreans on a free-trade agreement.
Such an agreement, the president said, would have increased U.S. exports by $10 billion and supported more than 70,000 U.S. jobs.
"We believe that such an agreement, if done right, can be a win-win for our people," the president said.
So far, however, South Korea has not opened its markets in any meaningful way to American beef or -- perhaps most contentious -- U.S. cars.
According to the Korea Herald, U.S. automakers exported only 6,140 vehicles to South Korea last year because of trade rules. That same year, the Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia sold 735,000 cars and light trucks in the U.S.
Beef is such a dicey issue for President Lee that negotiators didn't focus on it much during this trip. Because of fears of mad cow disease, Lee faced public outrage -- including rallies and candlelight vigils -- after his decision to reopen imports of U.S. beef in 2008.
After meeting with Lee in June, Obama apparently hoped an agreement would be ready by now -- which, sources said, it is not.
"I want to make sure that everything is lined up properly by the time that I visit Korea in November," the president said back in June. "And then in the few months that follow that, I intend to present it to Congress."
Today the president urged South Korea to work with him.
"We don't want months to pass before we get this done," he said today. "We want this to be done in a matter of weeks."
U.S. trade representative Ronald Kirk told reporters that "President Obama has been up front in every conversation with President Lee about the disparity in terms of market access for the American automotive industry…as well as having more progress and full implementation of a separate beef protocol to resuming full sale of all beef products to Korea."
