WASHINGTON — The U.S. auto industry and its supporters in Congress want the Clinton administration to pressure South Korea to allow more foreign auto sales.
A 2-year-old trade agreement was supposed to improve foreign automakers' access to South Korean consumers, but imports still account for less than 1 percent of South Korea's vehicle sales.
Steve Collins, president of the Automotive Trade Policy Council, which represents General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG, said the South Korean government has promoted a bias against imports.
He said the government has labeled foreign cars as extravagant and unpatriotic, produced news reports that blast consumers who buy imports and even targeted owners of foreign vehicles with tax audits.
"We'd like to see the Korean government take a more aggressive action to reverse past practices to intimidate Koreans from buying foreign autos," he said.
The Korean embassy in Washington did not return several calls seeking comment.
According to the council, import sales in South Korea are expected to reach 4,000 vehicles, or about 0.3 percent of the total market this year. South Korean auto sales in the United States are expected to pass 480,000, an increase of about 45 percent over last year.
Collins met with congressional staffers this week to encourage lawmakers to speak out against the imbalance.
Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John Ashcroft, R-Mo., recently sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky expressing concern.
They haven't called for any specific measures against South Korea, but asked Barshefsky to hold Korea to a 1998 Memorandum of Understanding that was supposed to bolster import sales.