The United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act would approve the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement entered into on June 30, 2007 with the government of South Korea.
The bill would authorize the President to proclaim specified tariff modifications. Before passage of the law, U.S. industrial goods faced an average tariff of 6.2 percent in Korea, at a cost of more than $1.3 billion a year, while Korean exports entering the United States faced an average tariff of only 2.8 percent. The agreement will significantly lower tariffs affecting exports to the Korean market. The International Trade Commission estimates that U.S. exports to Korea would increase by $9.7 billion to $10.9 billion as a result of tariff reductions alone. Certain non-tariff restrictions would also be reduced.

In particular, South Korea would immediately cut its tariff on U.S. autos in half and fully eliminate those tariffs after five years. The impact of removing tariff and non-tariff trade barriers on automobiles would increase auto exports by $250 million a year. The legislation would also prescribe certain safeguards with respect to imported Korean motor vehicles under the agreement.

The legislation contains language covering intellectual property rights, such as copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. The agreement would require both the United States and South Korea to grant national treatment to nationals of the other, and all laws, regulations, procedures and final judicial decisions would need to be in writing and published or made publicly available. The agreement would lengthen terms for copyright protection, cover electronic and digital media, and increase enforcement to go beyond the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. Both parties would be obliged to provide appropriate civil and criminal remedies for willful violators of intellectual property rights.

The agreement authorizes such groups as trade associations, unions or businesses to petition the International Trade Commission for relief if, as a result of the reduction or elimination of a duty provided for under the agreement, a South Korean item is being imported into the United States in such increased quantities as to be a substantial cause or threat of serious injury to the domestic industry producing a competing item.

The bill would amend the Trade Agreement Act of 1979 to make a product or service of a party to the Agreement eligible for U.S. government procurement.

The legislation contains minor non-trade-related clauses, including an increased penalty for tax return preparers who fail to properly inform their clients of their eligibility for the earned income tax credit.

H.R. 3080 was sponsored by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and had the support of the Obama administration.

The House passed H.R. 3080 by a vote of 278-151 with 219 Republicans and 59 Democrats for the bill with 21 Republicans and 130 Democrats against the bill. With one cosponsor from the House H.R. 3080 proceeded to the Senate where it was also passed by a vote of 83-15 with 45 Republicans, 37 Democrats, and 1 Independent for the bill and 1 Republican and 14 Democrats against the bill.