ID :
205636
Wed, 09/07/2011 - 00:52
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/205636
The shortlink copeid
Senate leader urges Obama to submit FTA with Korea
WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama, currying favor with labor unions, is to blame for the long delay in passing free trade pacts with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, the Senate Republican leader claimed Tuesday, as Congress convened after a summer break.
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate's minority leader, said Obama should stop political games and waste no more time in sending the deals to Congress for job creation.
"One thing he could do immediately is finalize the free-trade deals with Colombia, South Korea and Panama that have been languishing on his desk," he said in a contribution to the Washington Post.
The president has been seeking assurance first that Congress will approve the renewal of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) job-training program before submitting the free trade agreements (FTAs), signed a few years ago.
"As the president has been holding out over the demands of labor union leaders, other countries are benefiting from free trade deals of their own," he said, referring to FTAs between South Korea and the European Union and Colombia and Canada.
In August, the Senate leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties announced a compromise to handle the FTAs and the TAA separately.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives, controlled by Republicans, also plans to discuss a bill on tariff preferences for developing nations, a move that may help the ratification process of the FTAs.
A bill on the Generalized System of Preferences, if passed in the House, may help resolve partisan strife over the TAA, opposed by Republicans, officials said.
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate's minority leader, said Obama should stop political games and waste no more time in sending the deals to Congress for job creation.
"One thing he could do immediately is finalize the free-trade deals with Colombia, South Korea and Panama that have been languishing on his desk," he said in a contribution to the Washington Post.
The president has been seeking assurance first that Congress will approve the renewal of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) job-training program before submitting the free trade agreements (FTAs), signed a few years ago.
"As the president has been holding out over the demands of labor union leaders, other countries are benefiting from free trade deals of their own," he said, referring to FTAs between South Korea and the European Union and Colombia and Canada.
In August, the Senate leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties announced a compromise to handle the FTAs and the TAA separately.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives, controlled by Republicans, also plans to discuss a bill on tariff preferences for developing nations, a move that may help the ratification process of the FTAs.
A bill on the Generalized System of Preferences, if passed in the House, may help resolve partisan strife over the TAA, opposed by Republicans, officials said.
