The WSJ is saying that the EU-ROK is going to provide South Korea and the European Union some real benefits that the US is going to miss out on because of Democrats being in too deep with Big Labor. Some pertinent quotes:
That pact would have thrown open most of the world's 13th-largest economy to American companies and boosted U.S. GDP by $10 billion to $12 billion. It also would have cemented America's relationship with an important ally.The US, it warns, "will lose out to their European peers on access to the Korean market," and this is a "protectionist cost" America cannot afford.
Yet congressional Democrats have stalled ratification, largely at the behest of their Big Labor backers. Opponents claim, all evidence to the contrary, that the agreement wouldn't do enough to open Korea's car market.
A lot of commenters in the Korea-blogosphere seem to enjoy bashing the KORUS FTA, some of them apparently out of some twisted revenge for negative experiences at the hand of some Korean or other
ReplyDeleteThis is probably the main reason that it is so tough to sludge through the comments on some of the more commented blogs.
I tend to agree with the WSJ, but I think that the Obama admistrations is just giving the appearance of reworking the deal. I ultimately believe that the will pass the agreement. After Korea was singled out in a couple of his speeches for trade issues during his campign, I think that he will wait and let the dust settle (or at least until Detroit is worried about other things)before signing off on it.
This is probably the main reason that it is so tough to sludge through the comments on some of the more commented blogs.
ReplyDeleteYep. The only reason I even try is because there are some gems of information amongst all the negative comments or the innocuous chitchat. Some of it from commenters I typically disagree with.
I deal with that by going cold turkey as far as Marmot's Hole comments go.
I tend to agree with the WSJ, but I think that the Obama admistrations is just giving the appearance of reworking the deal. I ultimately believe that the will pass the agreement.
I was thinking the same thing: Maybe they have to throw a bone to Big Union but they'll pass it anyway, especially after the EU has done so.
After Korea was singled out in a couple of his speeches for trade issues during his campign, I think that he will wait and let the dust settle (or at least until Detroit is worried about other things)before signing off on it.
That's possible, but I think the public can easily shift their attention focus. But it's the Republicans that generally want to take Obama down and most of them want this FTA, so maybe Obama will be in the clear.