Another Free Trade disaster, and Obama owns it.

[former9thward]

37. Strong results? Well maybe for a select few...

In the case of Korea, non-tariff barriers such as a new burdensome auto parts certification process enacted after KORUS and a proposed vehicle emissions and penalty system designed to target U.S. auto sales have also also hurt U.S. exports and cost American jobs. As a result, only 11,657 American cars have been sold in Korea (0.8 percent of the market), while 1.26 million Korean cars have been sold in the U.S. (8 percent of the market) since the trade agreement went into effect.

Just two years after passage of KORUS, the U.S.-South Korea trade imbalance has reached its largest deficit on record, and an estimate from the Economic Policy Institute pegs the number of American jobs lost due to the agreement at over 60,000. Almost every U.S. economic sector has seen declining exports to Korea since the agreement went into effect, with agricultural exports especially hard hit.

The U.S.-South Korea trade deficit reached a historic high of $20.673 billion this year, an increase of $8.6 billion (47 percent) from 2011—the year before KORUS took effect. In addition, exports are down $2 billion since 2011 and down $700 million since 2012. This widening trade gap shows lost opportunity and lost jobs for American workers and companies.

http://delauro.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1538:reps-delauro-and-slaughter-economists-and-labor-representatives-mark-2nd-anniversary-of-u-s-korea-free-trade-agreement-address-agreement-s-legacy-of-job-loss-and-trade-deficits&catid=2:press-releases&Itemid=21