Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is wrapping up his 11-day sojourn to the Far East to promote Virginia agricultural products and lure businesses to invest in the state — and his time Monday included a meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.
Among the topics: the Korean-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which McDonnell is encouraging Virginia’s congressional delegation to support.
“Hopefully, within the next 30-60 days, the Congress will pass that,” he said on a conference call with reporters from Seoul. “It is imperative right now that the Congress does not dilly-dally around and get this done.”
McDonnell said in a letter to the state’s delegation that agriculture – currently the state’s largest industry – would particularly stand to benefit, with nearly two-thirds of U.S. agricultural exports to South Korea gaining duty-free status if the agreement is implemented.
It was signed in 2007, but still needs congressional ratification.
A handful of business agreements have been reached over the course of the trip, which also included stops in Japan and China, a cultural exchange agreement between the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Beijing’s Palace Museum, and the announcement of Virginia’s opening a trade office in Shanghai.
“All in all, it was an enormously successful tour,” he said.
He said that members of his cabinet will be following up in Korea, as well as China, on export agreements involving soybean, chicken and port exchanges, and that in the next few weeks there will be some “very specific releases” in the way of new accords.
