U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk earlier this month called on Congress to ratify the Korea FTA before a similar pact between South Korea and the European Union (EU) goes into effect in July.

In his drive to double exports within five years as a means of reviving the world's biggest economy, Obama has said he will send the Korea FTA to Congress early this year.

The deal, revised in December, calls for a delayed phaseout of auto tariffs, among other things, in return for Washington's concessions on pork and medicine.

Obama expressed satisfaction with the new deal, hoping it will address U.S. concerns over lopsided auto trade, which has served as the biggest hurdle to getting congressional approval of the Korea FTA since it was signed in 2007 under the Bush administration.

The U.S. exported 5,878 automobiles to South Korea in 2009, while South Korean auto shipments to the U.S. totaled 476,833, according to the United Auto Workers.

"Before I took office, I made it clear that we would enforce our trade agreements and that I would only sign deals that keep faith with American workers and promote American jobs," Obama said.

"That's what we did with Korea, and that's what I intend to do as we pursue agreements with Panama and Colombia, and continue our Asia Pacific and global trade talks."

Obama hopes the Korea FTA's ratification will give momentum to two other pending deals, with Panama and Colombia, and his push for similar deals with Japan, Australia, Malaysia and several other Asian and Pacific Rim countries for the so-called Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership.

Senior Republican lawmakers earlier in the day called on the Obama administration to expedite the process for the ratification of the pending free trade deals to help create jobs in the U.S.

"I strongly believe that we should consider all three agreements in the next six months," Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) said at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing. "This deadline isn't being driven by politics or posturing; it's driven by the need to create jobs for American workers. Free trade agreements are a surefire way to create American jobs by growing U.S. exports of goods and services and does not require one dime of new government spending.

The president has noted the South Korea agreement alone will create 70,000 American jobs."

Camp, chairman of the committee, said he is pleased that the revised deal addresses U.S. concerns over lopsided auto trade.

"The U.S.-Korea FTA is finally being fixed to open up markets where they were closed and to end one-way trade," the lawmaker said. "U.S. automakers exported less than 6,000 cars to South Korea in '09; in contrast, South Korean automakers have been able to use their historically closed markets to finance an aggressive push into the U.S. market, exporting 476,000 cars to the U.S. in 2009.

The imbalance is so severe that automotive trade accounts for 75 percent of the $10.6 billion U.S. trade deficit with Korea."    

Free trade is seen as one of the potential areas of close cooperation between Obama and congressional Republicans, who regained control of the House in the midterm elections in November.


Obama calls on N. Korea to abandon nuclear weapons

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged North Korea to abide by its commitment for nuclear dismantlement.

"On the Korean Peninsula, we stand with our ally South Korea, and insist that North Korea keeps its commitment to abandon nuclear weapons," Obama said in his State of the Union address.

North Korea walked out of the six-party talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs in early 2009 after the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on the impoverished communist state for its nuclear and missile tests.

Pyongyang in recent months expressed its intentions to return to the talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, apparently to win economic benefits.  

Seoul and Washington want Pyongyang to apologize for the shelling of a South Korean border island and the torpedoing of a South Korean warship that killed 50 people, including two civilians, last year before any resumption of the multilateral nuclear talks.

China, the North's staunchest communist ally, wants an early resumption of the six-party talks without any conditions attached.

The six-party deal, signed in 2005, calls for the North's nuclear dismantlement in return for massive economic aid and diplomatic and political benefits.

In its most recent peace overture, North Korea last week proposed that the two Koreas hold a meeting of working-level officials to prepare for a high-level military dialogue to discuss the artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island and the sinking of the Cheonan.

South Korean officials said earlier in the day that they are willing to meet with North Korean officials in mid-February, while proposing a separate meeting to gauge North Korea's sincerity regarding denuclearization ahead of the restart of the six-party talks, which last met in December 2008.

The South's move coincides with the visit to Seoul by James Steinberg, U.S. deputy secretary of state, to follow up on the summit in Washington last week between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao. Steinberg is also to visit Beijing and Tokyo.

In a joint statement after the summit, Obama and Hu called for "the necessary steps that would allow for early resumption of the six-party talks," and "expressed concern" over North Korea's "claimed uranium enrichment program."