Beyond Beef

As a health panic wanes, Democrats run out of reasons to oppose U.S.-Korea free trade.

THE COLLAPSE of the Doha Round of global tariff-reduction negotiations means that free trade is likely to advance, if at all, only through bilateral and regional agreements. These are not ideal, since they risk fragmenting the world into rival trading blocs, but they are better than no liberalization at all. And the economic case for the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement in particular, in which both Washington and Seoul agreed to reduce tariffs on a host of products, remains strong. The biggest such proposed pact since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, the deal would substantially increase American producers' access to South Korea's dynamic, $1.2 trillion economy.

The problem is politics. As President Bush witnessed firsthand during his recent stopover in Seoul, nationalist opposition to greater trade with the United States still roils South Korea; local protectionists have been galvanized by wildly exaggerated fears of mad cow disease in U.S. beef imports. South Korea's pro-U.S. president, Lee Myung-bak, withstood pressure and forged a compromise that will permit beef imports, with U.S. exporters following limitations on the age of cattle that can be slaughtered for the Korean market. (Cattle older than 30 months are thought to be more susceptible to mad cow disease.) The first shipments arrived shortly before Mr. Bush's visit.

Now it is up to national legislatures to ratify the pact. In South Korea's National Assembly, Mr. Lee's party enjoys a majority, and the deal was negotiated when the current opposition was in government, so approval seems likely. The U.S. Congress is another story. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) declared in April that he would not permit consideration of the pact until all cuts of U.S. beef from all ages of U.S. cattle make it onto Korean supermarket shelves. His office informs us that the recent compromise has not changed his view. Mr. Baucus had a right to protest South Korea's irrational resistance to beef imports, especially since it harmed cattle producers in his state. But Mr. Baucus ought to show at least as much flexibility as that shown by the U.S. beef industry, which he is ostensibly defending.

That would still leave much opposition among Democrats. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is among those who question whether the deal offers the U.S. car industry sufficient access to South Korea's traditionally protected markets. But the trade agreement would eliminate most South Korean car tariffs and address non-tariff barriers. This progress was enough for General Motors, which has not opposed the deal; only Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers remain vocally opposed. But it is the latter pair's position, coupled with the generalized anti-trade sentiment that prevailed in the party's primary season, that Democrats continue to heed. Prospects for ratification by Congress, therefore, are much lower than they should be. That won't change until Democratic leaders put the vast majority of U.S. workers and business first.