Bush Meets South Korea's Lee, Vows to Push Trade Deal

[Joanne98]

Source: Bloomberg

April 19 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, meeting with South Korea's Lee Myung Bak, said he'll push for congressional approval of a free-trade agreement between the two allies and vowed to maintain pressure on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear-weapons program.

``The Korea free-trade agreement is a priority for this administration, and we will press hard with the United States Congress,'' Bush told reporters today at Camp David, Maryland, as he concluded a two-day meeting with Lee, the first South Korean leader to visit the presidential retreat.

The biggest free-trade agreement since Nafta is running into trouble among the majority Democrats in Congress, who are increasingly hostile to trade policies they say disadvantage American workers and industries. Representative Sander Levin, the chairman of the House Trade Subcommittee, yesterday signaled his opposition to the Korean deal, and a similar agreement with Colombia has been shelved by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

``Our United States Congress must reject protectionism, must not turn its back on a friend and ally like Korea and must approve the free trade agreement with Korea this year,'' Bush said.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ai8JWt9IM510&refer=home

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Gee. Bush is working harder on these trade deals than he is on the Iraq war. He really cares about this. Let's push harder to make sure he gets NOTHING done.

[madrchsod]

1. free trade?

korea was one of the two countries that destroyed our metal forming industries in the 70`s...the other was taiwan.

there won`t be enough jobs left to dig ourselves out of a recession...then it will be called a depression