Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm urged the Bush administration on Monday to strengthen its enforcement of trade laws and use ongoing talks with South Korea to help give U.S. automakers greater access to the country's consumers.

Korea has unfairly blocked automakers from selling their vehicles in the Asian country, the Democratic governor said, asserting that U.S. trade officials need to provide open access in South Korea to U.S. manufacturers.

Only a few thousand American autos are sold in South Korea each year while hundreds of thousands of Korean-made vehicles are marketed in the U.S.

"We want the president to make sure that he negotiates a trade agreement that does not send our jobs away," Granholm said in a conference call with reporters.

U.S. trade negotiators finished their first week of talks last week on a free trade agreement with South Korea, America's seventh-largest trading partner. The pact, which could be negotiated by the end of this year, would be the most economically significant agreement for the U.S. since the North American Free Trade Agreement more than a decade ago.

Granholm wrote U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab earlier this month, asking her to level the playing field with Korea trade, target currency manipulation and enforce intellectual property against China.

"We are looking for action on unfair trade practices that can help our manufacturers compete and win in the global marketplace," Granholm wrote.

Stephen Norton, a spokesman for Schwab, said negotiators hope to reach a comprehensive agreement with South Korea "that creates new market opportunities for American manufacturers and farmers."

The U.S. and the European Union in late March filed a trade case against China over auto parts, arguing that it is imposing high taxes on imported auto parts in violation of commitments it made in joining the World Trade Organization in 2001.

But Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and his brother, Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, said the administration has failed to actively enforce trade agreements and allowed currency manipulation by China to continue.

"Trade matters to Michigan, to business and workers, and this administration has failed to actively try to enforce our agreements," Sander Levin said.

Norton said the administration takes the enforcement of trade agreements seriously. In addition to the auto parts case, he cited enforcement cases involving genetically modified organisms and high fructose corn syrup.

"I think we have been out there making sure that the trade rules are fair and vigorously enforced," he said.

In a separate move, nearly the entire Michigan congressional delegation wrote President Bush a letter asking him to seek a commitment from oil companies to install fuel pumps carrying E85, a gasoline blend with 85 percent ethanol.

U.S. automakers have produced more than 5 million vehicles capable running on gasoline and ethanol blends but complain that less than 1 percent of the nation's fuel pumps offer E85.

"There is a critical missing piece in our nation's efforts to reduce our reliance on oil," members of the delegation wrote.

White House spokesman Alex Conant said Bush was working with Congress "to reduce our dependence on foreign energy and increase ethanol use in America." He said the energy bill signed into law last year includes tax credits for service stations that install E85 pumps.

Conant said Bush has urged "oil companies to invest in renewable sources of energy to strengthen America's economy and security."
 

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