United States and S. Korea Sign Free-Trade Agreement
A free-trade agreement signed June 30 between the United States and South Korea still must be approved by the U.S. Congress before it takes effect.
The pact would eliminate or reduce tariffs and quotas on thousands of items traded between the two countries.
For the United States, it is the biggest freetrade agreement since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect in 1994 between Canada, Mexico and the United States. For South Korea, it is the biggest free-trade agreement the country has ever negotiated.
South Korea is the United States’ seventhlargest trading partner, with bilateral trade last year between the two countries reaching $78 billion.
In 2006, South Korea shipped $1.66 billion worth of textiles and apparel to the United States, down from $1.9 billion in 2005.
South Korea has seen much of its textiles business go to China, but a free-trade agreement would help that industry be more competitive if tariffs and quotas are reduced. The United States still has quotas on 34 apparel and textile categories coming from China until the end of 2008.—D.B.
