Check out this press release:
WASHINGTON, June 5 /U.S. Newswire/ — House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Ways and Means senior Democrat Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), Trade Subcommittee senior Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), Congressman Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.) and New Democratic Coalition Co-Chairman Congressman Ron Kind (D-Wis.) issued the following joint statement today labeling a possible U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement as a ‘crucial test’ for the Bush Administration’s trade policy:
“This FTA represents a crucial test for the Bush Administration’s trade policy. In the manufacturing sector, despite two past trade agreements with South Korea, its automotive market remains closed for business to American manufacturers. Now is the time for South Korea to tear down its walls once and for all. This Administration should not accept any more of South Korea’s false promises.
(Emphasis added) Well, I for one will rest better at night knowing that Nancy Pelosi is on guard against any more shenanigans by those dirty, low-down, lying, cheating and stealing Koreans.
32 Comments
Damn, that was harsh. Of course, one has to wonder whether anyone would want to buy an American car even if the market were completely open.
But not as deceitful as a low-down, dirty deceiver!
You realize, of course, that your sarcasm about great big feeb Nancy Pelosi will be lost on the netizens, who will only see that Marmot’s Hole calls Koreans dirty liars, cheaters, and stealers. Or that the Congress has done so.
But I wonder if anyone will be able to connect the dots between 2002’s orgy of openly-stated anti-Americanism and these chickens coming home to roost.
Exactly, Just cause the market opens up doesn’t mean people have to buy anything. Although I could stand to see a few real sports cars on the road as opposed to those girly tuscanies that sound like 2-stroke YZ80s with an oversized muffler. With all the new concept cars being produced in Detroit you’d think real automotive enthusiasts would want to get in on that action at least. Sorry I know thats off topic. Anyhoo, forget Pelosi.. whatever she’s says I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could throw her.
Rhetoric out of Washington must be extremely worrisome to those who will have to bear the cost of defense and closed markets once Uncle Sam yanks away the teat. On the Republican side: “Stop lying to us!” (plus “Stop trafficking us your whores!”). On the Democratic side: “Stop lying to us!” (plus “Buy our damn cars!”).
Wait until they put together the beef ban, rice ban, software piracy and DVD copying with the lies coming out of the left in respect of US Forces Korea. The good news for Korea is most of our politicians are stupid (which means they can be swayed with emotional appeals to the “alliance forged in blood” and “we’re still a developing country”). And bribery is back in fashion. Tong-Sun Park is still on deck, right?
Seriously though, I saw the chart at Korea Times about the list of discussion/issue topics for this round of FTA talks.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpag.....110160.htm
Has anyone seen evidence that the US might actually address its own protectionist policies in regards to agriculture or is “FTA” just another bit of false advertising?
mr. noh, “tear down this wall!”
however, i for one would welcome FTA commitment or collapse as a watershed event in our relationship.
Nancy Pelosi is Exhibit A for why the US may regain a Republican Congress even though mid-term elections look like they are he Democrats to lose.
I would never accuse Korea of having an open market, even as I wouldn’t necessairly make cars the thrust of my argument.
Sorry “regain” should have been “retain”.
Given that most Korean Americans active in politics of young age are fanatically supportive of Democrats, I find this very amusing and entertaining.
Were her statements incorrect? Can Koreans now buy foreign cars without being audited or shamed in the newspapers?
By the way, why hasn’t anything been posted on the way Korea is trying to screw Lonestar or any of the other foreign companies in Korea that dare to make a profit? Aren’t there any business types among this blog’s contributors?
i thought Steven Lee of Lonestar wasn’t just making a profit, but was guilty of tax evasion. Tax evasion. That’s a charge the government can cook up, yes. That’s how Russia and China deals with sons of guns they don’t like. Anyway, Steven Lee is Korean, and he has decided to hide himself in USA, living with his Korean family comfortably in the New Jersey. I think he’a piece of shit.
If the U.S. provided Japanese and German companies unrestricted access to the American markets in their infancy, why can’t we do the same for the ROK?
Korean auto manufacturers have repeatedly beaten the odds by being innovative and seriously improving their quality of product, we ought to be supportive by providing incentives for them to do business with the U.S., rather than stepping on their toes.
Korea has very few natural resources, other than mineral deposits, and 80% of the country is too rocky or mountainous to farm. Are they suppose to sustain their growth by exporting kimchi and dogmeat to the world?
Personally I see this, as just positioning by the U.S. government for a future stance against Chinese auto-makers.
–Remort
Gerry—Audited and shamed by newspapers? I\’m not sure what it\’s like in Incheon, but over where I am, there are so many foreign cars on the road that I find it difficult to believe they\’re still getting audited. Or that the newspaper \”shaming\” is doing much good… assuming such a concerted media campaign even exists.
No, according to the Korean media, Steven Lee is an American.
Michelle Wie is Korean, though. Funny how that works.
We have. The question is whether Korean companies are in their infancy anymore. Additionally, the decision to provide Japanese and German companies unrestricted access to the American markets from 1950-1985 was taken in the context of a larger geopolitical struggle — the Cold War. Rebuilding Japan and Germany was part of a strategic contest to beat the Soviet Union. Since that contest is now over, the beneficiaries of the contest may expect the game to change.
Robert,
You live in Itaewon, don’t you? So you probably do have more foreign cars than we do here in Incheon.
Here is a February 17, 2006 news release from Michigan senator Carl Levin, who talks about Korea’s automobile industry.
http://www.senate.gov/~levin/n.....?id=251708
Koreans are doing what the Japanese have done twenty years ago. Reagan got hefty sums of money from the Japanese.
Knocking on from Brendon’s observation: The US similarly has provided Korea with vast amounts of aid and subsidies and generally open markets (some exceptions, as there were also for Germany and Japan) - not to mention a lot of blood and treasure in the Korean War — because it was politic to so do in the context of the same larger geopolitical situation that provided a rationale for such support to Germany and Japan. That situation has now changed, even here in our little corner of NE Asia, notwithstanding the continued existence of the odious regime to the North, which simply doesn’t have the same throw weight standing alone to justify US military and trade charity - particularly when Korea wants to pursue ita own agenda vis-a-vis the north, one that is very much as odds with that of the US. Koreans, with their peculiarly strong frog in the well mentality - or maybe just having been spoiled by handouts, subsidies and preferential treatment for so long — don’t seem to be able to recognize or accept this. Putting the changed geopolitical circumstances together with Korea’s contemporary stature as an economic powerhouse, though, there simply is no reason for the US to provide the same sort of unrequited support to Korea.
That is not to say that the US shouldn’t (or doesn’t, as most Koreans would have it) take account of Korea’s interests and just say gasayo; the US has an interest in keeping Korea within the free market club of “democracies”. But if Korea really wants to be full member of the club — an independent one as the Great Pretender and his mionions keep whining — then they are going to have to accept not being on the diplomatic affirmative action bus any longer and start walking the walk not just talking the talk.
Pelosi and company are useful idiots. They provide the free traders of both parties and the USTR with a scapegoat upon ehich to pin the tail of acting tough in the FTA negotiations, without having to voice such thoughts (which they share) themselves, and thus upsetting the delicate kibun of their negotiating counterparts and the raw nerve of a country they represent. It also may give the genuine free traders something with which to keep in check the vested interests represented by the US-Korea Trade Council and their ilk, who are in favor of free trade generally, but always willing to make exceptions at someone else’s expense for their own benefit - I’m thinking about other US domestic players who would benefit from freer markets in Korea, not just counterparties.
Gerry:
Yeah, but I work in Samcheongdong, where there are more foreign-made cars than you can shake a stick at. Hate to imagine how busy those auditors must have been.
BTW, does anyone know what percentage of cars sold in the United States are prestige vehicles? The reason I ask is because it seems that partially due to the messed-up pricing system, and partially due to the fact that Korean luxury vehicles are still lagging behind, just about every foreign vehicle I see in Korea is a luxury model, namely Lexus, BMW and Benz. Assuming for a moment that luxury cars account for the bulk of that 2.72 percent (see Gerry’s link) of the Korean car market composed of foreign vehicles (coincidentally, imports apparently account, or at least accounted, for over half the luxury vehicles sold in Korea), I’d be keen to see how that matches up with the U.S. market.
Wouldn’t want to forget Audi, too.
“BTW, does anyone know what percentage of cars sold in the United States are prestige vehicles?”
If you start counting at the 26K price point (hunh?): 10.3% as of 06/2003
Ward’s Auto World, August 1, 2003
make that 10.2
Baduk said:
“Reagan got hefty sums of money from the Japanese.”
Can you expand on that a little bit?
I think he’s referring to the Plaza Accord, as a result of which Japan (and Germany) agreed to devalue the dollar relative to yen and (the dm) in a very substantial manner.
thanks sperwer…i think i was 12 at the time but i obviously have some research to do. there are some areas where i am woefully inadequate and unknowledgeable.
The interesting thing about the Plaza Accord is that it was pretty clearly, in part, a case of the US cashing in its chits for the postwar reconstruction of Japan and Germany. I think it’s high time the US took Korea to the same woodshed. Not that the recompense from Korea should come in the form of a comparative dollar devaluation - despite the current relative strength that wouldn’t work because the Korean currency (like some other things here) is only semi-hard, and isn’t at all important as a trading currency. It should come by Korea finally, genuinely, going “open hanbok” (economically speaking). The open question is whether Korea will be as honorable as Germany and Japan (gasp!!!) were in redeeming the IOUs. I’m betting “Non”. [Now donning nomex underwear, NBC suit and M40.]
Baduk could also be talking about the $2 million Reagan got for some public speaking gigs in Japan after he left the White House.
America has a vested interest in seeing an economically strong ROK. While the game has changed significantly, our allies haven’t changed (much).
Yes, President Reagan did accept speaking engagements from Japanese companies for money, there’s no secret in that, most politicians accept paid-speaking engagements.
Some of you history buffs may recall that yesterday was the anniversary of Pres. Reagan challenging Gorby “to tear down this wall”, in the then divided Germany.
I’m tired of these silly American liberals, err, defeatist American communists/socialists trying to screw up the rest of the world too.
–Remort
And, as for Nancy Pelosi, the best characterization of her I’ve read is Jacob Weisberg in Slate (http://www.slate.com/id/2137731/):
Nancy Pelosi epitomizes this problem. To understand her politics, think Huffington Post without the flashes of wit. Here is a typical Bush-bashing, cliché-ridden quote of hers: “The emperor has no clothes. When are people going to face the reality? Pull this curtain back!” Pelosi dismisses people who disagree as hoodwinked or stupid. She’s not exactly Hillary Clinton herself, though. A five-minute interview is usually sufficient to exhaust her knowledge on any subject. And she can flop around like a fish.
“Here is a typical Bush-bashing, cliché-ridden quote of hers: “The emperor has no clothes. When are people going to face the reality? Pull this curtain back!”
I was rereading George Orwell’s Politics and the English language last night. Pellosi’s rhetoric fits right into the category of “pure wind” emitted by unthinking political automatons that he dissects like a needle in a junkie’s arm.
Dean, Reid, and Pelosi have nothing to offer, except an endless torrent of hate speech. Their party lacks any sort of agenda, and as the link http://www.slate.com/id/2137731/ suggests, all three individuals seem bitter and crabby. Their demeanor reminds me of Soviet-type communism during Stalin’s era.
In any event, aside from the hyper-competitive auto industry, Korea has some real potential to lead the robotic invasion in the West as a means of serious economic growth with their ever-increasing pool of engineering talent. Following Japan’s lead with Sony’s robotic puppy and the Japanese version of an android, KITECH has produced Ever-1, a Korean female android that appears to be in her mid 20s, 160cm, and 50Kg. Ever-1 (The first human name in the bible, Eve + Robot), she looks pretty cute, and definitely better looking than her Japanese competition, but still a little stiff though.
As many affluent nations have people living much longer lives. These senior citizens will continue to provide a strong demand for these type of robotic devices, providing Korean companies with serious growth potential in this industry. Some examples are: domestic servants, robotic lawn-mowers, or my personal favorite the automated kitty litter box, and of course robotics for education, entertainment, manufacturing, healthcare, and military applications.
–Remort