US, South Korea make progress in trade talks-USTR

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) The United States and South Korea made good progress in a number of areas this week in long-running talks on a free trade agreement, the chief US negotiator said.

''We have just concluded our seventh, and in my view, the most successful negotiating round so far,'' Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler told reporters yesterday. ''While I have no major breakthrough to announce today, we now have a clear idea of the path forward.'' The two sides have agreed to hold an eighth round of talks the week of March 5 in South Korea, Cutler said.

In addition, both US President George W Bush and South Korean Roh Moo-hyun ''reiterated their commitment to the success of these talks just this morning,'' Cutler said.

Earlier in the day, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab told lawmakers that Seoul continued to resist US demands in the talks to open its market to more US cars.

''It's hard slogging, but we haven't given up yet,'' Schwab said during a hearing in the US House of Representatives on the Bush administration's trade agenda.

The United States is pressing South Korea to eliminate an 8 percent tariff on automobile imports and other ''nontariff barriers'' that keep out American cars, Schwab said.

Rep. Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat, told Schwab that Congress would only support an agreement that knocks down South Korea's ''economic iron curtain to our industrial goods, including automotive, in a measurable way.'' Other lawmakers expressed concern that Seoul was refusing to eliminate tariffs on some farm products it does not even grow and balking at US demands for a mechanism to resolve investment disputes.

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