Obama and S Korea's Lee to tour auto plant

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will tour a Michigan General Motors plant with South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak Friday to tout a new free trade pact, a day after feting his visitor at a state dinner.

Lee and Obama will tour the Orion Assembly plant in Lake Orion, Michigan and make speeches about the trade deal, which Obama finally sent to Congress for ratification last week.

The deal was reached between South Korea and the previous Bush administration in 2007, but has been delayed ever since by disputes over implementation and political wrangles in the United States.

The deal would remove 95 percent of tariffs between the two economies. The Obama administration says it will support 70,000 US jobs and help double exports to South Korea within five years.

Earlier on Monday, Lee called on South Korea's parliament Monday to urgently ratify the deal, saying the US Congress was poised to approve it.

"More than anything else, ratification of the Korea-US FTA is an issue that should be dealt with urgently," Lee said in a budget speech read by his prime minister.

The appeal came a day before Lee leaves for Washington for the White House talks, a state dinner and an address to a joint session of Congress.

The visit to the auto plant will be symbolic because disputes over US access to the South Korean vehicle market were a key sticking point that prompted the Obama administration to renegotiate aspects of the accord.

The Obama White House secured provisions that allow US automakers to increase sales to South Korea before Washington agrees to lower tariffs on Korean vehicles destined for the United States.

South Korea also agreed to cut non-tariff curbs that restricted access to its market for American car firms.

"If Americans can buy Kias and Hyundais, I want to see folks in South Korea driving Fords and Chevys and Chryslers," Obama said in a major jobs address to Congress last month.

"I want to see more products sold around the world stamped with the three proud words: -- Made in America."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011