35 / 126
Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2010
33
From the
americas
The cause of Mr Lee’s satisfaction was the announcement
by the US president that he would ask Congress to ratify a
long-stalled free-trade agreement with South Korea.
November is the new target month. Aides to Mr Obama said
they would try to resolve lingering issues by the next G-20
leaders’ talks, to be held then in the South Korean capital
of Seoul, and present the deal to Congress shortly after the
US mid-term elections, also set for November. The United
States trade representative, Ron Kirk, said he planned to
promptly initiate talks with his Korean counterpart, Trade
Minister Kim Jong-hoon, but pledged also to consult with
Congress while carrying out the negotiations.
Mr Kirk’s nod to Congress was by way of forestalling
objections to the revival of the trade pact, a remnant of the
Bush administration which was concluded in June 2007
but allowed to languish until now. Some labour unions and
lawmakers have criticised it on grounds that it does not
adequately address Korean regulatory and tax barriers that
have led to one-way trade and hurt the American industrial
sector.
Domestic opposition to the accord with South Korea
appears to turn on perceptions of whose oxen it may gore.
The United Automobile Workers union and Ford Motor Co
have asserted that South Korea has not provided the US
with sufficient market access for American auto exports.
General Motors and Chrysler, both of which have made
inroads into the Korean market, have supported ratification
of the free trade agreement.
Now, word is out that the White House is committed
❖
❖
to the removal of obstacles to ratification, and the
South Koreans are not the only ones happy to hear it.
Citigroup’s chief executive, Vikram S Pandit, who leads
a coalition of American businesses that urge passage of
the agreement, expects it to yield increased trade and
investments, thereby driving growth and job creation
to fuel the US economic recovery. He said, “President
Obama’s leadership in breaking down barriers to
commerce couldn’t come at a better time.”
US sets higher duties against some steel
grating imports from China
The hopeful spirit animating American-South Korean trade
relations (See “Free-Trade Pact with South Korea,” above) is
absent from the long-running dispute between the US and
China over steel imports. The latest edition of this concerns
some imports into the US of steel gratings from China, on
which the US Commerce Department on 1
st
June imposed
final countervailing duties of 62.46% and antidumping
duties ranging between 136.76% and 145.18%.
“The Chinese government and industry cannot accept
this,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement issued
on its website the next day. The ministry claimed that the
investigation conducted by the US prior to raising the duty
rates was faulty, and its calculation methodology unfair.
The US was urged to refrain from resorting to such trade
remedies and called upon to forswear protectionism. Beijing
warned that the rising number of US-initiated trade disputes
against China hurts economic ties between the two powers.