By Scott Wilson and Howard Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, November 11, 2010; 11:01 AM
SEOUL – President Obama’s failure to secure a free-trade agreement with South Korea reveals in sharp relief the limits of his leverage overseas after a devastating midterm election.
Obama’s trip through four Asian democracies is aimed at promoting trade and other economic partnerships to boost long-term job creation in the United States, where midterm voters pounded his Democratic Party for a moribund employment market.
But after visits to India and Indonesia, where Obama on his own removed trade barriers and announced specific export contracts, the politically weakened president could not bring home the agreement that would have the most far-reaching effect on the U.S. economy.
Administration officials say the South Korea deal, which Obama inherited mostly complete from the Bush administration, would increase exports of U.S. goods by $10 billion annually and support 70,000 jobs in the United States.
Officials were aiming to finish the deal before Obama sat down Thursday with with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. But talks foundered, mostly on issues involving the auto and beef markets, and the two leaders were left with nothing more to announce than that they would keep working.
“We don’t want months to pass before we get this done,” Obama said in a news conference following his meeting Lee. “We want it done in a matter of weeks.”
The setback, a characterization White House officials rejected, came in a country where the United States has more leverage than perhaps any other. Nearly 40,000 Americans died in the Korean War, and the United States maintains tens of thousands of troops here to guard this thriving commercial capital against North Korean attack.
It demonstrated the limits of Obama’s appeal for countries to at times compromise their own agendas in order to advance mutually shared interests – in this case, U.S.-Korean trade expansion. That multilateral approach has been a mantra of Obama’s foreign policy philosophy.
As in his dealings with Iran and North Korea on nuclear issues, Obama – who in June set this meeting in Seoul as his deadline for finishing the trade deal – saw negotiations falter because of a country’s inability to move from a strongly held internal position: in this case, South Korea’s overriding national interest in protecting its robust domestic auto industry from outside competition.
Lee, the former chairman of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, expressed gratitude for America’s sacrifice on what was Veterans Day in the United States.
But he would not relent on measures to ensure an open market in South Korea for U.S. cars and beef, not even for an American president to whom he privately confessed – during their first lunch together a year ago – feeling a deep personal gratitude for the support of the United States.
“I know that it will be beneficial for everyone if we can create good jobs in the United States,” Lee said. “And I said it before that that will be helpful not only to the American consumers but to the Republic of Korea, as well.”
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