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| Among the issues on the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA), auto trade was officially confirmed as the top by the United States Trade Representative (USTR). |
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The United States Trade Representative (USTR) officially confirmed that auto trade between Korea and U.S. would be one of the issues with which the U.S. government should effectively deal for Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
According to the National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE Report) released by the USTR on the 31st, the U.S. government clarified to promptly and effectively cope with the issues on the Korea-U.S. FTA including interests in the auto trade between the two countries.
The USTR suggested the ‘2009 trade policy agenda and 2008 annual report’ to the parliament in February and announced that it intended to promptly deal with issues on the Korea-U.S. FTA with responsibility. However, the details in the issues were not mentioned in the report.
Although of several proposed issues on the Korea-U.S. FTA so far, the auto trade problem was the top issue, which should be reviewed by the U.S., the U.S. government didn’t raise a certain issue explicitly.
As the NTE Report, however, cleared up the auto trade between Korea and U.S. as the interests with which should be effectively dealt, the U.S. government made it appear that it regarded the auto trade as the greatest interest among the issues on the table prior to the ratification of Korea-U.S. FTA.
In case of the NTE Report released by the USTR in March 2008 when former U.S. President George W. Bush centralized the power, there was a positive view in that most import restrictions as well as tariffs and non-tariff barriers were solved by the FTA settlement.
On the contrary, the current U.S. government led by President Barack Obama was a bit on the fence about it was a bit on the fence about the Korea-U.S. FTA in its first NTE Report.
This report, however, reckoned the ratification of Korea-U.S. FTA as the most essential agreement in the last 16 years and rated it to contribute consolidating the geopolitical alliance between the two nations for a long time.
By Jung Eunsun
정은선 기자 stop1020@ajnews.co.kr
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