Top trade officials of South Korea and the U.S. will hold phone talks soon to set the time table for discussions to resolve outstanding issues in their free trade accord, a senior official
said Wednesday.
The two countries signed a free trade agreement (FTA) in 2007 after nearly two years of negotiations, but the accord still awaits ratification in the legislatures of both countries.
U.S. President Barack Obama's Democratic government insists that non-tariff issues related to autos and beef should be addressed before it
seeks Congressional ratification.
"South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk will have phone talks in the near future," Choi Seok-young, deputy minister for trade, told reporters. "Both sides are still fine-tuning the time frame for upcoming discussions."
South Korea earlier predicted that both sides would work toward having them in September.
After a meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Canada last month, Obama said he hopes to see the outstanding issues resolved before year's end so that his government can ask Congress to approve the agreement early next year.
Many lawmakers in the U.S. have complained about the pact's auto provisions, which they claim do too little to tear down South Korea's
"non-tariff barriers" to U.S. auto imports.
The U.S. also wants South Korea to lift restrictions on the shipment of beef.
South Korea imports beef only from cattle less than 30 months old due to fear over mad cow disease. The United States recorded three cases of the disease between 2003 and 2006. In response, Seoul banned imports of U.S.beef in 2003 before resuming them in late 2008, which led to months of
street rallies.
U.S. beef exports to South Korea reached US$216 million last year, making South Korea the fourth-biggest importer of U.S. beef products, according to industry statistics.