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Both Houses of the U.S. Congress voted in quick succession to approve the long-stalled Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea on Wednesday, apparently backing President Barack Obama's claims that the deals would help in promoting job creation and economic growth in the United States.
The FTAs approved by the House of Representatives as well as the Senate will now be forwarded to the President to sign them into law. Obama had submitted the FTAs to the U.S. Congress last Monday for consideration.
The FTA with South Korea is the largest of its kind involving the United States after Washington signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. But the deal has to be ratified by South Korea's National Assembly for it to have legal validity.
The U.S.-Korea FTA is projected to grow American economy by at least $10 billion annually. The United States exports goods worth more than $40 billion to South Korea each year, and is poised to export even more under the new FTA. Overall, foreign investment is responsible for more than five million American jobs, including two million in manufacturing. It is estimated that the deal will raise South Korea's GDP by 7.2 percent to $32.6 billion over the next decade, and create 520,000 jobs.
RTT News. Global Financial Newswire.
http://www.rttnews.com/
