The US and South Korea broke through a three-year deadlock on Friday to seal a sweeping free-trade agreement (FTA), which US President Barack Obama hoped would renew US leadership in Asia.
The agreement lifts tariffs on 95 percent of goods between the countries within five years, in what would be the largest US trade pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico in 1994.
After nearly four days of talks in suburban Washington, negotiators cleared a key hurdle by letting the US move more slowly on lifting duties on South Korean cars after US carmakers feared a flood of imports.
The deal still needs ratification by the two countries’ legislatures. Obama won early support from a labor-backed congressman and the Ford Motor Co, former staunch opponents of the deal.
As a senator, Obama was a critic of the deal first negotiated in 2007 under then-US president George W. Bush. But on Friday, Obama said his team reached “the best deal for American workers and corporations,” saying it would create 70,000 US jobs through new exports — an estimate disputed by critics.
“It deepens the strong alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea and reinforces American leadership in the Asia Pacific,” Obama said in a statement.
In Seoul, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said the agreement would bring “huge benefit” to South Korea, which has embraced free trade deals as a strategy to promote an economy long in the shadow of economic giants Japan and China.
“When the FTA takes effect, South Korea will be the first country in the world that will have signed free trade deals with the United States, the EU and ASEAN and India,” he added.
Under the renegotiated agreement, the US will be allowed to keep its 2.5 percent tariff for five years, while South Korea would immediately cut its tariff in half to 4 percent. Both sides would eliminate tariffs after five years.
US officials said Seoul would also ease car safety and environmental standards that US automakers contend are a thinly disguised way to stifle foreign competitors through arbitrary requirements.
The revised agreement would let each US automaker export 25,000 cars per year that meet only US safety requirements — four times the current level.
Mitch McConnell, the top Republican senator, and Representative Sandy Levin, a Democrat from the auto manufacturing state of Michigan who is often critical of free trade deals, came out in support of the new agreement.
DEFENSE: The first set of three NASAMS that were previously purchased is expected to be delivered by the end of this year and deployed near the capital, sources said Taiwan plans to procure 28 more sets of M-142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as nine additional sets of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), military sources said yesterday. Taiwan had previously purchased 29 HIMARS launchers from the US and received the first 11 last year. Once the planned purchases are completed and delivered, Taiwan would have 57 sets of HIMARS. The army has also increased the number of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) purchased from 64 to 84, the sources added. Each HIMARS launch pod can carry six Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, capable of
Tropical Storm Podul strengthened into a typhoon at 8pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with a sea warning to be issued late last night or early this morning. As of 8pm, the typhoon was 1,020km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west at 23kph. The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA said. Based on the tropical storm’s trajectory, a land warning could be issued any time from midday today, it added. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said Podul is a fast-moving storm that is forecast to bring its heaviest rainfall and strongest
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