The Hill News

In the sluggish, swamp-like heat of Washington this past summer, even progress on pro-growth policies with bipartisan support came grinding to a halt, leaving the pending trade agreement between South Korea and the United States in legislative purgatory for the fourth straight year.

Unfortunately, this summer was different than the previous four. Washington’s partisan bickering put America’s businesses and workers at a distinct competitive disadvantage as the European Union breezed past us and implemented a trade agreement with South Korea on July 1.

This shifted the discussion over trade agreements beyond a debate about creating jobs in America, and into a dispute over retaining America’s global competitiveness.  With the EU-South Korea agreement in effect, more than 90 percent of European goods are now entering the Korean market duty free.  In just July, this led to a 36 percent increase in exports for European companies over the year befor! e. Meanwhile, U.S. exports to South Korea increased by just 3 percent in the same period.

It’s not just the EU that is beating the United States to reaching consumers in Asia.  The number of trade agreements worldwide is exploding, with more than 300 agreements in force and 150 more in various stages of completion. Korea, for example, has FTAs in force with 45 countries and more in the pipeline. By contrast, the United States has entered into just two FTAs with Asia-Pacific countries: Singapore and Australia.

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