Trumped on trade; EU takes reins as U.S.-Korea deal stalls.(BUSINESS)

Byline: Andrew Salmon, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

SEOUL -- Failure by the United States and South Korea to ratify a 2007 free trade agreement has American businesses fretting that European competitors may be about to outflank them.

The long-languishing Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is widely expected to be on the agenda when Presidents Obama and Lee Myung-bak meet at their Seoul summit Thursday. Adding to criticism of U.S. trade policy aired at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore last weekend, Seoul is irked that the deal, signed in June 2007 after exhaustive negotiations, has not been ratified 2 1/2 years later.

The European Union is taking advantage of the paralysis. The European Union signed a free-trade agreement with Korea last month that …