McDermott Presses for Movement on Korea FTA

WASHINGTON, DC – At a Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee hearing today, Republicans continued efforts to hold up the South Korea FTA until the Colombia FTA is also ready for consideration. The hearing comes days after notification by the Office of the United States Trade Representative that the Korea FTA is ready to move forward with technical discussions on the draft implementing bill.

"There are serious outstanding labor and violence issues in Colombia and Republicans should not let the Korea FTA languish while the Administration resolves these issues. This would be economically short-sighted and destructive – the Korea agreement will increase exports ten times as much as the Colombia FTA, creating thousands of export-driven jobs in America,"said Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee. "The EU-Korea FTA goes into effect on July 1 and, if we don't act, U.S. workers, businesses, and farmers will lose ground to their EU competitors to the tune of $1.1 billion in exports (according to the Republican's own assessments). Similarly, we need to renew other trade initiatives that the Republicans are holding up, like Trade Adjustment Assistance, the Generalized System of Preferences Program and the Andean Trade Preferences program, and Miscellaneous Tariff Bill."

In her Click here for the March 7, 2011 USTR notification.