<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><u class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">For Immediate Release</span></u><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">: <u class="">Contact</u>: <o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">May 4, 2016 Nicholas Florko, (202) 454-5108<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 3.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;" class=""><a href="mailto:nflorko@citizen.org" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">nflorko@citizen.org</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;"><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-decoration: none;" class=""> </span></span><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-decoration: none;" class=""> <o:p class=""></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">New Data Reveal That Obama’s Korea Trade Pact on Which the TPP Was Modeled Resulted in Doubling of Trade Deficit</span></b><b class=""><span style="font-size: 16pt;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;" class=""><b class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Likely to Fuel Bipartisan Trade Revolt in Presidential and Congressional Campaigns as White House Gears up Push for Congressional Passage of TPP<o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;" class=""><b class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></i></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the Obama administration intensifies its efforts to persuade Congress to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), new U.S. government data released today reveal an “inconvenient truth” about the Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that served as the template for the TPP. The new </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class=""><a href="http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/data/index.html" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">data</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> covering the first four years of the pact reveal that the U.S. goods trade deficit with Korea has more than doubled. This 115 percent deficit increase with Korea comes in the context of the overall U.S. trade deficit with the world decreasing slightly. <o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The increase in the U.S. trade deficit with Korea equates to <b class="">the loss of more than 106,000 American jobs</b> in the first four years of the Korea FTA, counting both exports and imports, according to the trade-jobs </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class=""><a href="http://trade.gov/publications/pdfs/exports-support-american-jobs.pdf" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">ratio</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> that the Obama administration used to promise job gains from the deal.</span><b class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The Census Bureau data showing the outcomes of the Korea pact are the opposite of the Obama administration’s 2011 “</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class=""><a href="https://ustr.gov/uskoreaFTA" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">more exports, more jobs</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">” promises for the deal. The administration is now employing similar claims to try to sell the TPP to Congress and the American public as bipartisan opposition to more-of-the-same trade policies surges</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> and presidential and congressional candidates spotlight the problems with the TPP and the failure of U.S. trade policies.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">“President Obama has stepped up his efforts to do a hard sell on the TPP, but much of the TPP text was literally cut and pasted from the Korea agreement, so to see what a disaster the Korea deal has been is a stark warning,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. “President Obama has repeatedly asked that the TPP not be judged against his predecessors’ failed trade deals, but now we can see the disastrous results from President Obama’s signature trade package, which helps to explain why in this election cycle Americans are on the warpath against our trade policies.” <o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Despite the Korea FTA including more than 10,000 tariff cuts, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class=""><a href="http://waysandmeans.house.gov/UploadedFiles/KORUS_Fact_Sheet_July_2011.pdf" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">80 percent</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> of which began on day one:<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><b class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></i></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 22.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The U.S. goods trade deficit with Korea has increased 115 percent, or $16 billion</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">, in the first four years of the Korea FTA (comparing the year before it took effect to the fourth year data).</span><b class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 22.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Since the FTA took effect, U.S. <b class="">average monthly exports to Korea have fallen in 11 of the 15 U.S. sectors that export the most to Korea</b>, relative to the year before the FTA. Exports of machinery and computer/electronic products, collectively comprising 28.6 percent of U.S. exports to Korea, have fallen 22.6 and 6.6 percent respectively under the FTA. <b class=""><i class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></i></b></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 22.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><b class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></i></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 22.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The 115 percent surge in the U.S.-Korea goods trade deficit in the first four years of the FTA starkly contrasts with the 5 percent <i class="">decrease</i> in the global U.S. goods trade deficit during the same period.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 22.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">While U.S. goods imports from the world have decreased by 6 percent, U.S. goods imports from Korea have increased by 19 percent, or $11.5 billion, during the FTA’s first four years.</span></b><b class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 22.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">U.S. goods exports to Korea have dropped 9 percent, or $4.4 billion</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">, under the Korea FTA’s first four years. </span><b class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 22.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 22.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">U.S. exports to Korea of agricultural goods have </span></b><a href="http://apps.fas.usda.gov/gats/default.aspx" style="color: purple;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">fallen</span></b></a><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;"><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> 19</span></b></span><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> percent</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">, or $1.4 billion,<b class=""> </b>in the first four years of the Korea FTA despite the administration’s oft-touted point that a</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">lmost two-thirds of U.S. agricultural exports by value would obtain immediate duty-free entry to Korea under the pact. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">U.S. agricultural imports from Korea, meanwhile, have grown 34 percent, or $123 million, under the FTA. As a result, the U.S. agricultural trade balance with Korea has declined 22 percent, or $1.5 billion, since the FTA’s implementation. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The Obama administration promised that U.S. exports of meat would rise particularly swiftly, thanks to the deal’s tariff reductions on beef, pork and poultry. However, U.S. exports to Korea in each of the three meat sectors have fallen below the long-term growth trend since the Korea FTA took effect<b class="">. </b></span><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class="">Compared with the exports that would have been achieved at the pre-FTA average monthly level, U.S. meat producers have lost a combined $62.5 million in poultry, pork and beef exports to Korea in the first four years of the Korea deal – a loss of more than $5 million in meat exports every month</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" class="">.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Courier New';" class="">o<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Despite the promises made by U.S. officials that the pact would enhance cooperation between the U.S. and Korean governments to resolve food safety and animal health issues that affect trade, South Korean banned nearly all imports of American poultry at the beginning of 2015 due to several bird flu outbreaks in Minnesota and Iowa. Comparing the FTA’s fourth year to the year before it went into effect, U.S. poultry producers have faced a 93 percent collapse of exports to Korea – a loss of nearly 100,000 metric tons of poultry exports to Korea. U.S. beef exports are finally nearing pre-FTA levels after declining an average of 11 percent during the first three years of the agreement. U.S. pork exports have also nearly recovered to pre-FTA levels after falling by an average of 16 percent in the first three years of the agreement.<b class=""></b><o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 22.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Record-breaking U.S. trade deficits with Korea have become the new normal under the FTA – <b class="">in 47</b></span><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> of the 48 months since the Korea FTA took effect, the U.S. goods trade deficit with Korea has exceeded the average monthly trade deficit in the four years before the deal.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 2.9pt 0.0001pt 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has tried to obscure the bleak Korea FTA results, as congressional ire about the pact is fueling opposition to the TPP. The USTR’s standard data omissions and distortions include:<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 2.9pt 0.0001pt 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 22.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The USTR tries to dismiss the decline in U.S. exports to Korea under the FTA as due to a weak economy in Korea. But the Korean economy </span><a href="http://databank.worldbank.org/" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">has grown</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> each year since the FTA passed, even as U.S. exports to Korea have shrunk. Korea’s gross domestic product in 2015 was 11 percent higher than in the year before the FTA took effect, suggesting that U.S. exports to Korea should have expanded, with or without the FTA, as a simple product of Korea’s economic growth. Instead, U.S. exports to Korea have fallen 9 percent in the first four years of the FTA.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 22.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The USTR selects a few products that have gained exports to emphasize, while omitting the low value of such exports and the net trade deficit increase of 115 percent.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 2.9pt 0.0001pt 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">###<i class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></i></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div></body></html>