US WANTS SOUTH KOREA TRADE PACT BY JULY

Washington, January 14 (AFP)– The chief US trade negotiator voiced hope Thursday that Congress would approve a free trade agreement with South Korea before a similar pact between Seoul and the European Union takes effect July 1.

President Barack Obama's administration last month sealed a deal to end 95 percent of tariffs between the United States and South Korea, revising a 2007 pact negotiated under president George W. Bush that went nowhere in Congress.

US Trade Representative Ron Kirk voiced hope that the revised deal would win approval from Congress by July 1 when a trade pact between the European Union and South Korea -- modeled in part on the original US text -takes effect.

"Everything we're doing in terms of finalizing the text with the Koreans, working with (congressional) committees, is with that July 1 goal in mind," Kirk told Third Way, a centrist think-tank.

The free trade agreement enjoys support from senior lawmakers, with revisions on auto tariffs in the new text winning over Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers union -- former staunch opponents.

But the AFL-CIO, the largest US labor federation and usually a staunch ally of Obama's Democratic Party, opposes the deal which it says will not fundamentally protect workers in troubled economic times.

Paradoxically, the Democrats' sweeping loss in mid-term elections will likely make it easier for Obama to win approval of the pact, with the new Republican leadership of the House enthusiastic about free trade.

However, Kirk cautioned against calls by some Republicans to push through two other lingering free trade pacts -- with Colombia and Panama -- alongside the Korea deal, saying it was crucial to spend time persuading stakeholders.

"They are just as important to us. We are committed to them," Kirk said of the deals with the two Latin American allies.

"But we think, as attractive as it may sound to some, it would be a huge mistake now to just force all of the trade agenda into one lone vote along with Korea," Kirk said.

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