Obama delays submission of FTA bills to Congress to Sept.

U.S. President Barack Obama has put off until September the introduction of bills to Congress on the ratification of free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama.

The Obama administration will soon announce when to present the bills to Congress and how to proceed with ratification for the three accords.

According to the Associated Press Wednesday, President Obama has reached an agreement on this with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders.

The American trade newspaper Inside U.S. Trade also said the same day that the White House has made a tentative conclusion of not introducing the bills to Congress before Aug. 6, when Congress goes into recess. This is to focus the administration’s energy on resolving pending issues such as the increase in debt limits and the reduction of fiscal deficit, experts said.

Quoting an anonymous source, the Associated Press said President Obama was ready to present the bills to Congress this week but considering the urgency of an agreement on the increase in debt limits, Obama accepted the request of other politicians to delay the bills’ introduction to September.

On this, a source of the U.S. administration said the White House, the U.S. Trade Representative and Democratic leaders are holding high-level talks on the timing and procedures of ratification of the Korea-U.S. trade agreement and they will soon announce the results of the talks.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said the same day at the Global Services Summit in Washington that he is trying to swiftly announce procedures on moving the three trade accords forward.

Kirk also stressed confidence in the passage of the implementation bills and reaffirmed his commitment to helping congressional ratification of the three accords "at a time that is not late," apparently referring to September according to experts.

yhchoi65@donga.com