WCA September 2010

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.

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2010