E.U. to Ratify First Free-Trade Deal With Asian Partner

The New York Times

BRUSSELS — The European Union said Thursday that it would sign a sweeping free-trade agreement with South Korea, its first with an Asian trade partner, after Italy removed objections.

Officials welcomed the deal as proof that protectionist pressures were being resisted despite the temptations of protectionist policies at a time of economic uncertainty.

“This the first generation of bilateral trade agreements which will bind Europe and Asia together in an ever-closer economic bond,” said Steven Vanackere, deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Belgium, which holds the Union’s rotating presidency. “This is a very big step in opening markets in Asia for our companies.”

The deal is expected to be signed at a meeting of the Union and South Korea in Brussels next month and will take effect July 1, 2011, Mr. Vanackere said during a news conference at a summit meeting.

Italy had resisted the pact, which requires backing from the 27 E.U. member states, because of worries about the effect on its automobile industry. It decided against holding out further after it achieved a small concession, under which the introduction of the agreement was put off by six months.

The agreement was announced before the arrival in Brussels of Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister of Italy, whose plane made an emergency landing as a precaution because of a problem with the cockpit windshield.

The deal will remove nearly all tariffs between the two economies, as well as many other barriers. The European Commission estimates that it will be worth as much as €19 billion, or $25 billion, in new trade for E.U. exporters and will “boost jobs and growth.” Trade between the Union and South Korea was worth about €53 billion last year.

In Seoul, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the deal would help South Korean businesses through the lifting of tariffs on important exports like cars, televisions, textiles and shoes.

President Barack Obama has been struggling to win support from his party’s legislators, and the accord is strongly opposed by the U.S. beef and auto industries, as well as by labor unions, which say it fails to end what they see as unfair restrictions on U.S. car and beef sales in South Korea. The Associated Press quoted the South Korean trade minister, Kim Jong-hoon, as saying that the United States could lose several hundred thousand jobs if it fails to act and Seoul’s agreement with the E.U. takes effect.