Obama urges Congress to pass South Korean free trade agreement

U.S. negotiators secured new concessions from South Korea at the end of last year that have won the pact support from the administration. 

Opposition to the pacts with Colombia and Panama, however, remains particularly intense, and Obama said he merely intended to pursue those two deals in his address.

“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,” he 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 reiterated his goal of doubling exports by 2014, saying, “because the more we export, the more jobs we create at home.”

“Already, our exports are up,” he says. “Recently, we signed agreements with India and China that will support more than 250,000 jobs in the United States.”  

Ways and Means Committee ranking member Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) laid out Democratic objections to the other two deals but hinted that problems could be resolved soon. 

He said Panama’s National Assembly is considering important labor law changes and that during a fact-finding trip this month to Colombia, he saw improvements in the human rights climate there.

Panama cleared a major hurdle to having its deal considered when it agreed to a Tax Information Exchange Agreement with the U.S. in November, he said.

In Colombia, “there seemed to be wide agreement that the new Colombian government was expressing a different approach than its predecessor” on issues like anti-union violence, he said.

“I believe there is now an opportunity for the two governments to work together mutually to achieve real progress on the ground,” he said.