A key holdout in the US Senate said Wednesday he would support a free trade agreement with South Korea after President Barack Obama's administration promised to promote beef exports. Senator Max Baucus, who represents the ranching state of Montana and heads the Senate Finance Committee, has pushed for South Korea to remove restrictions that limit imports of US beef from cattle slaughtered at under 30 months.
"Our long fight for strong, science-based trade rules around the world to open foreign markets for American ranchers - and keep them open - took big steps forward today," said Baucus, a member of Obama's Democratic Party. "Working with the administration, we delivered," he said in a statement, which said Baucus would support the South Korea free trade agreement and work on separate pending deals with Colombia and Panama.