Excerpt: American beef exporters are pushing the Obama administration and Congress to approve a pending trade agreement with South Korea without delay rather than hold out for concessions on their behalf. U.S. exports of beef are up 175 percent in the first eight months of this year to $331 million, regaining sales that collapsed following concern about mad-cow disease that sickened animals in 2003, according to Commerce Department data. Australia and Canada are pursuing their own free-trade agreements with South Korea, and their suppliers may gain on U.S. producers, according to the American Meat Institute… The South Korea accord is the biggest for the U.S. since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, and the Obama administration’s stated goal of completing it is being watched as a signal about whether the U.S. is capable of getting trade deals approved by Congress, according to William Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council in Washington.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-09/u-s-beef-exporters-urge-speed-not-changes-in-south-korea-trade-pact.html

Excerpt: Trade isn’t a popular election issue, but it is area where the Obama administration could find common ground with Republicans poised to gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Exports represent a way for the administration to create jobs on the cheap, especially with unemployment still stuck above 9.5% and little prospect of further government stimulus to support the lagging recovery. Republican lawmakers bent on slashing spending have taken a similar view, having long pressed for leftover free-trade deals from the Bush administration to be sent up to Congress for a vote… “Every time there’s an election where things change, there’s always speculation that bipartisanship is about to break out, and trade is always on the top of the list,” said Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents multinational corporations. “It’s going to turn out to be harder than people are thinking.”