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

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-new-u-s-south-korea-free-trade-agreement/560329>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 11, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-new-u-s-south-korea-free-trade-agreement/560329 "2010-11-11T17:34:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-new-u-s-south-korea-free-trade-agreement/560329/1 "2010-11-11T17:34:12Z")

</div>

Obama’s bringing home a lot of goodies from his lastest trip to Asia, [but not a free-trade agreement with South Korea:](http://www.freep.com/article/20101111/BUSINESS07/101111010/No-new-free-trade-agreement-reached-between-U-S-and-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?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-new-u-s-south-korea-free-trade-agreement/560329/2 "2010-11-13T19:11:40Z")

</div>

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)