Statement by Stephen J. Collins, President of the Automotive Trade Policy Council on Congressional Proposal to Open Korea's Automotive Market

WASHINGTON, March 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Statement by Stephen J. Collins, president of the Automotive Trade Policy Council, on congressional proposal to open Korea's automotive market:

On behalf of DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors, I want to express deep appreciation to Members of the House and Senate today for their innovative and thoughtful proposal to secure a fair trade deal for the U.S. auto industry in a Free Trade Agreement with Korea.

This proposal addresses Korea's refusal to open its market or keep its past commitments on free and open auto trade. It ensures that the Korean Government will have to provide U.S. automakers with real and meaningful access to Korea's auto market, if they are to be given special access to our market.

Korea has a long and disturbing history of keeping its market closed to all imported autos while freely exporting to the world. Indeed, total sales of imported cars and trucks into Korea from every country have barely risen above 3% of the total market -- a market that is in the top five in the world in production. Korea is currently exporting 700,000 vehicles a year to the U.S. while importing about 4,000 from the U.S. This is not a picture of free, open, or fair trade.

We look forward to working with the Congress and the Administration to seek an agreement with the Koreans that creates real two-way trade, and ends the era of Korea's closed auto market.