South Korea – United States Free Trade Agreement
| United States–Korea Free Trade Agreement | |
| Hangul | 한·미 자유 무역 협정 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 韓美自由貿易協定 |
| Revised Romanization | Han-Mi jayu muyeok hyeopjeong |
| McCune–Reischauer | Han-Mi chayu muyŏk hyŏpchŏng |
The United States–Korea Free Trade Agreement (officially: Free trade agreement between the United States of America and the Republic of Korea), also known as KORUS FTA, is a trade agreement between the United States and the Republic of Korea. Negotiations were announced on February 2, 2006, and concluded on April 1, 2007. The treaty was first signed on June 30, 2007, with a renegotiated version signed in early December 2010.
The agreement was ratified by the United States on October 12, 2011, with the Senate passing it 83–15 and the House 278-151. It was ratified by the National Assembly of South Korea on November 22, 2011, with a vote of 151–7, with 12 abstentions. The agreement entered into effect in March 2012.
The trade agreement involves an estimated 362 million consumers in the United States and the Republic of Korea. The treaty's provisions eliminate 95% of each nation's tariffs on goods within five years, and create new protections for multinational financial services and other firms. The treaty would be the United States' first free trade agreement (FTA) with a major Asian economy and its largest trade deal since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993. For South Korea, the agreement is the second largest FTA following the one signed with the European Union, dwarfing those signed in recent years with Chile, Singapore, the European Free Trade Area and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
While the treaty was signed on June 30, 2007, ratification was slowed when President George W. Bush's fast-track trade authority expired and a Democratic Party-controlled Congress expressed objections to the treaty related to concerns over bilateral trade in automobiles and U.S. beef exports. Nearly three years later, on June 26, 2010, President Barack Obama and President Lee Myung-bak expressed renewed commitment to the treaty, stating that they would direct their governments to resolve remaining obstacles to the agreement by November 2010.
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