Canada Aims to Match U.S.-Korea Trade Deal: Minister

Canada Aims to Match U.S.-Korea Trade Deal: Minister
(Reuters)

Canada is entering a difficult final phase of free-trade negotiations with South Korea and needs to secure a deal if it wants to be able to compete with the United States in Asia, Trade Minister David Emerson said on Tuesday.

Ottawa and Seoul began trade talks in 2005, and Emerson had hoped to sign a pact by the end of this year. He now appears reluctant to commit to that timeline, however.

"Unless we get some breakthroughs that so far we haven't been able to get, we're not going to get there this year," he told reporters.

"We've made some serious progress in recent sessions but we're not there yet."

Even if a deal is struck, Emerson faces fierce opposition from autoworkers who are lobbying opposition political parties to defeat any eventual trade pact with South Korea when it is presented to Parliament.

Meanwhile, he is racing against the clock as the U.S. Congress heads toward a vote next year on that country's trade accord with South Korea.

The United States and South Korea struck a deal in April but it has yet to be approved by legislators in either country.

Senior U.S. Democrats have called for the pact to be renegotiated to strengthen its auto provisions, which they say could fail to effectively open South Korea's market to more U.S. cars. Another obstacle to congressional approval of the deal is a beef trade dispute.

"If the United States ratifies its free-trade agreement with Korea, we will then be in a world where Canadian exporters to Korea will be discriminated against vis-a-vis Americans. We'll be in a world where there'll be at least two Korean auto plants in the United States shipping in to Canada," Emerson said.

The Canadian Auto Workers on Tuesday unveiled a study that estimates a deal would result in 33,000 total job losses across Canada. It is lobbying opposition parties to defeat an eventual South Korea trade pact in Parliament.

"From everything we're seeing and hearing, Mr. Emerson is rushing ahead to try to sign a free-trade agreement with South Korea in the midst of a manufacturing crisis, in the midst of an automotive industry crisis," said CAW President Buzz Hargrove.