The US and South Korea failed to reach an agreement on a stalled free-trade deal by an unofficial deadline set for yesterday, dealing a blow to their US$67 billion trade and bilateral relations.
US President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said negotiators would continue talks to iron out outstanding issues stemming from US concerns that the deal does not do enough to open South Korean markets to US beef and automobiles.
“We agreed that more time is needed to resolve detailed issues and asked trade ministers to reach a mutually acceptable deal as soon as possible,” Lee told a joint news conference with Obama on the sidelines of a G20 summit.
Obama said he was confident that the two sides would eventually do a deal, adding he wanted an agreement done within a matter of weeks.
The two sides have been working frantically to address US congressional and industry demands for changes to a deal signed in 2007.
Obama and Lee had set a deadline earlier this year to resolve remaining concerns by the G20 summit.
The failure to do so is an embarrassment for Obama who, coming off a midterm election setback last week, had hoped to advance the pact and send a signal on US commitment to greater trade.
South Korea signed a free-trade agreement with the EU last month and plans to ratify the deal in time to enact it in July next year, putting pressure on Washington to conclude its own deal with Seoul.
The US has said South Korea’s automobile standards discriminate against US cars and act as non-tariff barriers, keeping their market share at less than 1 percent.
Washington had also demanded South Korea drop restrictions on beef imports from older cattle, a potentially explosive political issue for Seoul, which said it would not back down on the matter.
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