Despite free-trade pact, S. Koreans don’t fancy U.S. cars

Just days after the Korea FTA was implemented, the word on the streets of Seoul is that buying U.S. cars is NOT a priority.

Here's a clip from the Washington Times:

SEOUL — If President Obama wants to sell more American-made cars to South Korea, nobody has yet told the average South Korean.

In a Starbucks in downtown Seoul, Shin Yoon-chu, 38, was asked for his opinion of automobiles made in the U.S.A.

“Not that popular,” Mr. Shin said. “We have a feeling that they require a lot of fuel. And if you compare to the European cars, the design is not that great.”

The Korean-U.S. free-trade agreement went into effect March 15, just before Seoul played host to Mr. Obama and more than 50 other heads of state at this week’s nuclear security summit. Mr. Obama, hoping to energize his union base and boost the economy, is fond of saying the long-sought FTA will help the U.S. auto industry by increasing exports.

“Thanks to the bipartisan trade agreements I signed into law with you in mind, there will soon be new cars on the streets of South Korea imported from Detroit, Toledo and Chicago,” he told a United Auto Workers convention in Washington in February.

Read the rest from the Washington Times by clicking here.

Comments

[Don Juan of Austria]

This is a simple problem to solve. You don't need an FTA. You just say to Korea: "you don't want to buy U.S. cars? Fine. Then you don't sell any here. And you don't sell parts here either, so don't think you can get around our measures by assembling Korean-made parts here and calling it U.S. production."

We should trade with countries that want to trade with us, i.e., that will BUY as much FROM us as they sell to us. If those other countries don't like not being able to slowly destroy us by constantly running trade surpluses with us, tough.

[mua hang giam gia]

You just say to Korea: "you don't want to buy U.S. cars? Fine. Then you don't sell any here.Then you don't sell any here