Aerospace exec urges wider support for Korea Free Trade Agreement

SPENCER KIM, chairman of CBOL Corp, a Los Angeles aerospace company, is urging American business to press the US Congress to pass the free trade agreement with South Korea because it favours the US.


CBOL Corp supplies products and services to a wide range of industries including aerospace, defence, space, energy, industrial and electronics. "Our worldwide network of manufacturers and suppliers enables us to provide hard-to-find parts," said its website.


South Korea first started FTA talks because it wants to move away from protectionism and nudge Korea's business and agricultural industries into the global arena, said Mr Kim.


Speaking at the recent Asia Pacific Business Outlook conference at the University of Southern California, Mr Kim said: "Globalisation in Korea is real. This agreement will kick start US trade policy with Korea."


Mr Kim said that the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement would eliminate 95 per cent of tariffs, which on US non-agricultural goods stands at 12.2 per cent.


South Korea imports US$250 billion a year of industrial products, but the US has only a 10 per cent share of that market said Mr Kim, adding that Koreans like American industrial products because of their quality.


South Korea's tariffs on many agricultural products, except on grain, are a whopping 49 per cent. California growers export many of the products that face these high tariffs.


If the US Congress approves, the price in South Korea of many specialty agricultural products from California and other states would be cut almost in half, Mr Kim said reported Newark's Journal of Commerce. US exporters to Korea also face many non-tariff barriers, and those, too, are addressed by the FTA.


For example, South Korea would accept inspections by the US on meat, and that should end a practice by which US meat exports were held up or denied access due to inspections in Korea.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)