chefdennis
Veteran Expediter
LOL, yeap barry got "pimped' by the South Korean gov .... where are all of those that said "give him a chance, he is going to show the world that he can fix it"....LOL...he has nothing!! How is that "hope and change" workin for you all!?!? 
ASIA NEWS
NOVEMBER 11, 2010, 4:58 P.M. ET
U.S., South Korea Fail to Extend Trade Talks
U.S., South Korea Fail to Seal Trade Pact - WSJ.com
By BOB DAVIS, EVAN RAMSTAD And JONATHAN WEISMAN
ASIA NEWS
NOVEMBER 11, 2010, 4:58 P.M. ET
U.S., South Korea Fail to Extend Trade Talks
U.S., South Korea Fail to Seal Trade Pact - WSJ.com
By BOB DAVIS, EVAN RAMSTAD And JONATHAN WEISMAN
SEOUL—The presidents of the U.S. and South Korea were unable to overcome a combination of cars, cows and domestic politics in order to revive a trade deal the two leaders touted as important for economic growth.
After more than a week of negotiations to amend a Korea-U.S. free-trade deal, originally negotiated by the Bush administration in 2007, U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said they had missed their deadline.
The talks will continue, the two leaders said, but chances for a deal are bound to diminish. Without presidential pressure and a deadline, there's less impetus to break an impasse, leaving the free-trade deal in limbo.
Officials in both countries said that the discussions over South Korean restrictions on auto and beef imports had proved too vexing.
"We aren't at a place where we feel we have gotten the market access that we need and our auto manufacturers deserve," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in an interview.
Negotiators on both sides were hindered by difficult domestic political conditions, which limited room for maneuver. In the U.S., free trade has become an electoral liability. "If we rush something that then can't garner popular support, that's going to be a problem," said Mr. Obama, who criticized the Korea trade pact when he was a presidential candidate. "We think we can make the case, but we want to make sure that that case is airtight."
Mr. Lee faces similar pressure in changing an agreement portrayed in the country as a victory over U.S. negotiators when it was first struck. After Messrs. Lee and Obama announced the delay, a spokesman for South Korea's main opposition Democratic Party called on Mr. Lee to drop the deal "if it is true that he is negotiating over whether to give more or give less."
Mr. Obama had hoped to revive the Korea deal as part of a broad effort to jump-start the momentum toward lowering barriers to trade with a goal of doubling U.S. exports by 2015.
He set the negotiating deadline to coincide with the Group of 20 leaders' summit as a way to force trade officials to cut deals in the two areas designated for discussion: eliminate import obstacles for U.S. car makers and beef producers.
A deal with South Korea is seen as especially important because it would be the largest bilateral deal the U.S. has completed since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada in 1994—and because South Korea is in the process of approving a trade pact with the European Union, scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2011.
Accepting expanded imports of U.S. beef was especially difficult for South Korea. Two years ago, civic activists and opposition politicians staged huge protests in central Seoul after Mr. Lee agreed to reopen imports of U.S. beef, which it banned in 2003 after a case of mad-cow disease was found in the U.S.
The failure to reach a deal was a blow to Mr. Obama, who planned to use a Korea deal as a way to reach out to those Republicans who profess to be free-trade advocates, as well as the business community. Partnering with U.S. exporters has been the dominant theme of his 10-day swing through Asia, so much so that many commentators in India complained that Mr. Obama's three days in the world's largest democracy was more about jobs in the U.S. than U.S.-Indian relations.
A trade agreement with South Korea also would have offered Mr. Obama a chance to show the world he can legislate the tough trade issues, not just talk about them. In his first two years, Mr. Obama hasn't sought passage of bilateral trade deals, as negotiated by his predecessor, with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, raising questions overseas about whether the U.S. had turned its back on trade liberalization. The EU and other U.S. trade competitors, meanwhile, have put together bilateral deals in South America and elsewhere.
A joint Obama-Lee news conference yielded a series of embarrassing moments for both. Not only did they concede they had come up short on trade, but they struggled to explain their own economic policies. Mr. Lee defended the ubiquitous presence of Hyundai cars, LG phones and Samsung televisions in the U.S. by saying Korean companies import some of the components from U.S. companies and pay technology licenses to U.S. inventors, an assertion not supported by trade figures.
The U.S. exported semiconductors valued at $2.6 billion to South Korea last year, accounting for about 10% of overall U.S. exports to the country. The U.S. imported $2.2 billion of South Korean semiconductors and $8.4 billion in finished household goods, including electronics.
South Korean auto standards are a blend of American and European regulations, forcing producers in both regions to make slight modifications to enter the South Korean market. Doing so can be expensive when unit shipments are low, forcing foreign car makers to raise prices or discouraging them from entering the market.
In the U.S., big labor unions that form a pillar of President Obama's political base and Ford Motor Co. were vocal opponents of the deal. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka Thursday praised Mr. Obama for not going ahead with what the union leader called "an inadequate deal that doesn't address the very real concerns of working people and small business." Ford, which unlike rival General Motors Co. doesn't have a Korean affiliate, campaigned hard against the deal, taking out full-page newspaper ads against it. Ford sells about 4,000 cars a year in South Korea, the most of any U.S. brand. GM owns a majority stake in South Korea-based GM Daewoo Automotive & Technology Co., which has about 9% of the market.
Mr. Kirk didn't comment on Ford's role but said he had consulted widely with companies and lawmakers on the negotiations.
Two prominent lawmakers from Ford's home state of Michigan, who often take different sides on trade issues, said in a joint statement Thursday that further talks with South Korea "will succeed only if South Korea adopts concrete steps to open its market to U.S. exports."
Michigan Reps. Sander Levin, the Democrat currently chairing the House Ways and Means committee, and Dave Camp, the Michigan Republican who is expected to take over as chairman in the next Congress, said, "While there are other unresolved issues, nowhere is this more evident than in the dangerously lopsided trade in automotive vehicles."
The Ways and Means committee would be among those with jurisdiction over the agreement should Mr. Obama try to move it forward.
Separately, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it would "pull out all the stops" to lobby for quick passage of a deal. The business group said that with the imminent implementation of the Korea-EU trade deal, the U.S. could lose 340,000 jobs without its own deal in place.
"Time is of the essence. American jobs are on the line," the chamber said.
The breakdown in talks surprised some Congressional staffers who had been closely following the discussions. According to one, the South Koreans had expected an agreement when U.S. negotiators at the last minute pushed hard on better access for U.S. beef. That prompted a walk-out by Korean negotiators.
Mr. Kirk didn't comment on the specifics of the talks. "The substance is more important than process," he said. "We won't be driven by artificial deadlines." But it was Mr. Obama who had set the G-20 deadline as a way to force a conclusion to the talks.
—Elizabeth Williamson and Josh Mitchell in Washington contributed to this article.