The U.S.-South Korea summit in Washington next week will focus on North Korea's nuclear threat. One way for President Obama to show his support for Seoul would be to push for ratification of the stalled U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement.

In an interview yesterday in Seoul, Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon affirmed that the Korean side is ready to sign on the bottom line. "If Congress passed it [the FTA] tomorrow, then we could pass it today," Mr. Kim says. Legislators in Seoul only want confirmation that deal -- signed by President Bush in 2007 -- won't be stalled or renegotiated by Congress, he says.

Their fears are warranted. At the behest of their Big Labor backers, Congressional Democrats already forced the Koreans to renegotiate the final text once by adding stricter labor and environmental standards. Mr. Kim says lingering Democratic concerns about U.S. automakers' access to the Korean market are unwarranted: "Every element the U.S. has raised has been addressed: Tariff, non-tariff, and even future non-tariff barriers."

Further renegotiations are "not an option," Mr. Kim says. President Lee Myung-bak has already pulled off a political hat trick by persuading interest groups, including the powerful agricultural lobby, to back the FTA. Further delays could "provide a good pretext for anti-American sentiment." Other nations are watching the U.S.-Korea FTA as a signal of how the Obama Administration will treat U.S. trading partners.

Ratifying the FTA would signal that the U.S. wants to boost trade with one of its closest Asian allies at a time when that ally needs it most. "The agreement is important not only from the economic point of view," Mr. Kim says, but also for "strengthening the alliance." In Washington next week, Mr. Obama would do well to heed that message.

출처 : Wall Street Journal Asia 2009/6/11