South Korean Ambassador to Meet Auto Executives - Detroit News

South Korean Ambassador Han Duk-soo, a former prime minister of South Korea, will speak to the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce and address concerns raised by U.S. automakers about the long-stalled Korea Free Trade agreement.

 

The ambassador also is meeting with Hyundai Motor Co. officials in Michigan and will attend a dinner with auto executives at the Henry Ford Museum, said Eric Thomas, a spokesman for the Korean Embassy.

 

 "He's going to be talking about the auto issue. The Koreans are willing to listen. That's why they are in Detroit. They want to hear what the car companies want to say," Thomas said, adding they are committed to making the agreement a "success" for both sides.

 

He said the meeting with the U.S. automakers will involve "high-level" executives with Ford in Dearborn and with Chrysler in Auburn Hills.

 

The Detroit Regional Chamber said in a statement that Duk-soo will "make the case that the U.S. Korea FTA will open Korea's $1 trillion economy to Michigan goods and services," the group said.

Last month, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said the government would push for changes to make it easier for U.S. automakers to compete in Korea.

 

"We can't accept -- and I am not going to ask (automakers) to accept ... the inability to just go in and compete and let the Korean consumer decide just like the American consumer does," Kirk said.

Last month, President Barack Obama named Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally to his export council. Ford has been harshly critical, calling Korea one of the most "closed markets in the world to automotive imports."

 

The agreement, as it now stands, "isn't sufficient to break down the barriers that the Koreans have put in place," said Stephen Biegun, Ford's vice president of international governmental affairs, last month.

 

In April 2007, the Bush administration signed a free trade agreement with Korea, but it stalled in the United States, primarily over concerns about U.S. beef and auto exports.

 

Korea's largest company, Hyundai, holds an 80 percent market share.

 

Obama, at the G-20 summit in Canada in June, said his administration will launch talks with South Korea aimed at resolving those differences before he goes there in November.

 

General Motors Co. is neutral, because of its South Korean unit GM Daewoo, the fourth-largest automaker there.

 

Korean companies exported nearly 200,000 vehicles to the United States in 2009, compared with 7,663 exported from the U.S. to Korea.

 

Source: Detroit News