No new U.S.-South Korea free-trade agreement

[BrainGlutton]

Obama’s bringing home a lot of goodies from his lastest trip to Asia, but not a free-trade agreement with South Korea:

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama won’t be returning from his Asia trip with a renegotiated free trade agreement between the U.S. and South Korea. Concerns over barriers to American automakers selling more vehicles in that country remain a point of contention.

The Obama administration had hoped to reach a deal on the free trade agreement first settled in 2007. That deal was never formally approved by either nation, and congressional Democrats – particularly those in the House – had balked because of concerns that U.S. automakers still couldn’t compete on equal footing in South Korea.

This week, Chrysler Group LLC joined Ford in opposing the deal as written. Last week, Ford took out a full-page ad claiming that for every 52 Korean cars sold in the U.S. only one American car is sold in South Korea.

Issues for debate:

1. Is this just a setback, and will an agreement be negotiated soon?

2. Wait, why does the U.S. need this anyway?

[Nametag]

Meh. The U.S. has 54 times as much paved roadway as South Korea. (Source: CIA World Factbook)

Korea:
Roadways:
total: 103,029 km
paved: 80,642 km (includes 3,367 km of expressways)
unpaved: 22,387 km (2008)

United States:
Roadways:
total: 6,506,204 km
paved: 4,374,784 km (includes 75,238 km of expressways)
unpaved: 2,131,420 km (2008)