[CTC] President Presses China on Currency Issue (Report coming out soon)

[Citizens Trade Campaign]

See link to our website, modified quote from me and plug for the TRADE Act
in the last three paragraphs.

http://www.minnpost.com/derekwallbank/2010/07/01/19398/paulsen_to_lead_south_korea_free_trade_effort

Paulsen to lead South Korea free trade effort

*By Lauren Knobbe *| Published Thu, Jul 1 2010 3:41 pm

WASHINGTON — Rep. Erik Paulsen has been named co-chair of the new working
group for the Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), which has proposed to
eliminate 95 percent of tariffs between the United States and South Korea
within three years.

“A free trade agreement will grow business and create jobs here in the
U.S.,” Paulsen said. “At a time when unemployment is at record highs we need
to do everything possible to grow our economy.”

Paulsen aims to restart the initiative for this trade agreement which has
stalled on concerns from the auto and beef industries that it will hurt fair
trade.

KORUS <http://www.ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/korus-fta>
was
signed by the United States and Korea three years ago and is still pending.
Legislation to ratify the agreement is expected to enter the House as a bill
before it would need to move on to the Senate for a vote.

South Korea is the fifth largest market for agriculture products for
Minnesota and the sixth largest agriculture market for the United States. In
2006, Minnesota had over $500 million in exports to South Korea in
everything from machinery to medical devices.  South Korea is the United
States’ eighth largest export market, and federal officials
project<http://www.ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/korus-fta>that
KORUS would add about $10 billion in economic activity in the United
States.

South Korea’s U.S. ambassador, Duk-soo Han, emphasized on Wednesday the
economic, strategic and geopolitical importance of the agreement and vowed
to get it passed.

“This agreement is so important that we will be able to make it and we will
do it in time,” Han said.

 President Obama pledged at last week’s G-20 summit to act on this pending
agreement and gave a boost to the initiative’s platform. KORUS largely
follows in the footsteps of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
and would be the largest trade agreement made by South Korea.

But concerns linger<http://www.fairtrademinnesota.org/Trade%20Information.htm>about
outsourcing labor to countries with poverty-level wages and increasing
unfair competition for companies at home that face greater regulation than
their international competitors. Concerns have been raised by some
industries, both in the U.S. and South Korea.

“We are opposed to the Korea Free Trade Agreement as it is written. It has a
lot of NAFTA copycat provisions that are not a good way to fulfill the fair
trade promises made by President Obama while has on the campaign trail,”
said Jessica Lettween, executive director of the Minnesota Fair Trade
Coalition. “The biggest issues that have been on the forefront are the
imbalances of auto exports and imports and our beef exports to Korea.”

Proponents of fair trade have introduced the Trade Act in the House which
aims to create a standard for trade between the United States and all other
the nations. All five Minnesota Democrats — Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty
McCollum, Jim Oberstar, Collin Peterson and Tim Walz — have co-sponsored
that bill.

*Lauren Knobbe is an intern in MinnPost’s D.C. bureau.*


-- 
Jessica Lettween
Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition
2511 Franklin Avenue East
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55406
Cell: 651-214-6064
Fax: 612-333-5891
Email: jlettween at citizenstrade.org
Web: www.fairtrademinnesota.org
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Minnesota-Fair-Trade-Coalition/285760363842?ref=ts
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