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Obama committed to South Korea trade deal: Clinton


    SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday the Obama administration was committed to passing a long-delayed free trade agreement with South Korea, and that the pact was ready for review by Congress.

    U.S. and South Korean trade negotiators struck a deal in December on a free trade pact, which was signed in 2007 but had not been ratified for three years because of U.S. auto and beef industry concerns.

    However, both the U.S. Congress and the South Korean parliament have yet to pass bills to approve the pact, despite U.S. President Barack Obama's renewed push for ratification.

    "I want to state as strongly as I can how committed the Obama Administration is to passing the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement this year," she told a gathering of business leaders in Seoul during a whirlwind trip through South Korea and Japan.

    U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk has said the Obama administration wants to win congressional approval of a free trade agreement before July. The agreement is pending in South Korea's parliament and is expected to be passed.

    Clinton said the pact -- which Washington says will increase exports of American goods by $11 billion and create tens of thousands of jobs -- is ready for review by Congress.

    Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, last month criticized Republicans for refusing to move ahead on the South Korea deal until the White House sends Congress implementing bills for long-delayed trade agreements with Colombia and Panama.

    Republicans broadly support the South Korea deal, but have threatened to block a vote on the pact unless the White House also submits the other two pending trade deals for approval.

    "This is a priority for me, for President Obama and for the entire administration," Clinton said. "We are determined to get it done, and I believe we will."

    Clinton arrived in Seoul on Saturday and told South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan that she believed they were on the "home stretch" to concluding the pact.

    She was due to meet President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday, before departing for Japan. She is visiting Tokyo as a gesture of support following last month's earthquake and tsunami disasters that killed thousands and crippled a nuclear plant.

    (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Writing by Jeremy Laurence; Editing by Michael Roddy)