U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said Tuesday that U.S. automobile sales to South Korea have sharply grown since a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) went into effect in March last year.
She was stressing the effects of existing FTAs with South Korea and other nations as Washington seeks to expand similar bilateral or multilateral trade deals.
"To help our exports keep growing, the (Barack Obama) administration has implemented new trade agreements. They are already bearing fruit," she said at a conference on export controls and policy.
"For example, the U.S.-Korea trade deal has boosted auto sales by nearly 50 percent," she added, referring to sales of U.S. autos in South Korea.
The secretary said the U.S. hopes to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks within this year.
The pact is being negotiated by 12 nations: the U.S., Japan, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The U.S. apparently wants South Korea to join the negotiations, but Seoul is taking a cautious approach on the issue. (Yonhap News)
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