AdvaMed Still Seeking Approval for U.S.-Korea FTA

Though the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) currently is stalled on Capitol Hill, medical device industry officials—including the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed)—are still pushing for passage.

Free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama won’t be voted on until Congress meets a White House demand to renew the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, which retrains U.S. workers who are displaced when their companies go overseas. TAA expired in February, and the renewal bid was rejected by the House of Representatives—an extension was estimated to cost about $7.2 billion at 2009 levels.

“They want $7.2 billion at a time when this country is basically broke,” Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said. Hatch is the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

At one time, the United States was Korea’s biggest trading partner, but it has fallen behind China, Japan and the European Union since 2003. Still, AdvaMed officials remain hopeful.

“The U.S.-Korea FTA has specific provisions addressing the concerns of the medical technology industry, and it illustrates the benefits that these agreements can bring to the medical technology sector and to job creation in the United States,” Stephen J. Ubl, president and CEO of AdvaMed, said in a statement. “According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Korea is one of the largest and fastest growing markets for medical technology.”

More than $875 million in medical technology products were exported to Korea in 2010, and $331 million in medical technology products were exported from Korea to the United States

“With a growing economy, the Korean people will come to demand an even higher level of healthcare and with that demand comes increased U.S. export opportunities,” Ubl continued. “AdvaMed views the implementation of this agreement as an opportunity to increase exports of medical technology products to this expanding market.”