Business News: The Sick-Day Bounty Hunters

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Reports that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons “are untrue” and peaceful uranium enrichment is vital for the country’s energy needs, its foreign minister said before nuclear talks in Europe this week.

World powers are “trying to stop our independence to establish a much-needed power plant,” Manouchehr Mottaki said today in Bahrain. “It is our right to create fuel and to deprive us of that right is scientific apartheid.”

Iran’s nuclear program, which has drawn four sets of United Nations sanctions, is at the center of a dispute between the U.S., its allies and the Persian Gulf country. Iran says it is producing uranium to use as fuel in nuclear reactors to generate electricity while the other countries accuse it of trying to build atomic weapons.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Nov. 30 he is ready for nuclear talks with a European Union-led group that includes the U.S., China, Russia, France, the U.K. and Germany. The parties, which last met more than a year ago, will meet Dec. 6-7 in Geneva, the office of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Nov. 12 in Brussels.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday that the success or failure of talks next week on Iran’s nuclear program is “largely in the hands of the Iranians.” Speaking directly to Mottaki and other Iranian delegates at the opening session of a conference in Bahrain, Clinton said the U.S. hopes Iran comes to the Dec. 6 meeting “as we will -- in good faith and prepared to engage constructively” on nuclear issues.

Technical Difficulties

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report last month that Iran delayed plans to make fuel for a reactor and may have run into technical difficulties.

The number of installed centrifuges that Iran uses to enrich uranium, the heavy metal used to fuel nuclear power plants and construct atomic bombs, fell to 8,426 from 8,856 three months ago, the IAEA said Nov. 23 in a restricted report obtained by Bloomberg News.

Iran supports the creation of an international nuclear fuel bank, Mottaki said today. “Since we are a fuel producer we ask that a branch of the bank is established in Iran,” he said.

State Department cables released by Wikileaks.org this week appear to show that Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, had appealed to the U.S. to attack Iran to stop its nuclear program. Saudi Arabia has said it isn’t sure whether the cables are genuine. The Sunni Muslim kingdom and Iran, which follows Shiite teachings, are regional rivals.

“We must not submit to pressures by outsiders on the region that divide us and create instability and create divisions among friends in the region,” Mottaki said today. “In the region it has been proven that foreign intervention creates unhealthy rivalries between neighbors.”

--Editors: Digby Lidstone, John Kohut.

To contact the reporter on this story: Vivian Salama in Bahrain via Abu Dhabi at vsalama@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg. at phirschberg@bloomberg.net.

Spain Declares State of Emergency as Air Controllers Strike

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 04:48 AM PST

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By Sharon Smyth

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The Spanish government declared the first state of emergency in 32 years of democracy and threatened to prosecute striking air traffic controllers who have crippled aviation in the nation unless they return to work.

More than 2,800 flights have been canceled since the wildcat strike began about 5 p.m. yesterday. Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana SA, Spain’s largest airline, canceled all of its flights until 6 a.m. tomorrow. British Airways Plc was among carriers that canceled or delayed flights to and from Spain.

“The controllers who are on strike will be informed in writing of their responsibilities,” Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said in a televised press conference in Madrid today. “Those who continue to disobey orders will face prosecution.”

The Spanish military is being deployed to take over the positions of hundreds of air-traffic controllers who are staging an unofficial walk after wrangling with the government since January when authorities took steps to cut their average annual pay by 40 percent.

Controllers were paid an average 334,000 euros ($450,000) in 2008, with 28 of them earning more than 700,000 euros, Industry Minister Jose Blanco told Spain’s parliament in January. The wages are the highest in Europe, according to Blanco.

--Editor: Dick Schumacher.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sharon Smyth at ssmyth2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Blackman at ablackman@bloomberg.net.

Ivory Coast Ouattara Presidency Claim Opposed by Army

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 03:50 AM PST

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By Olivier Monnier and Pauline Bax

(Updates with armed-forces stance from second paragraph.)

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Ivory Coast’s presidential candidate Alassane Ouattara declared himself the winner of the Nov. 28 election after the United Nations dismissed a claim by the Constitutional Council that incumbent Laurent Gbagbo had won.

UN mission chief, Young-jin Choi, backed results announced by the Electoral Commission that gave victory to Ouattara. The Constitutional Council had said those results were invalid. State television said armed forces chiefs backed Gbagbo.

“The United Nations has just certified the results from the Electoral Commission,” Ouattara told a press conference late yesterday. “Thus, I am the president elect of the Republic of Ivory Coast.”

The election was meant to unite the world’s top cocoa grower, which has been divided into a rebel-held north and government-controlled south since a 2002 uprising. Now, the dispute over the results is threatening to worsen violence that left several dead during the campaign, including at least six people who were killed late on Dec. 1 at an opposition party office by unidentified gunmen.

“I ask all my compatriots to stay calm and preserve the peace,” Ouattara said. “I call once again on my brother Laurent Gbagbo to respect the people’s choice.”

Armed Forces Declaration

State television reported that Gbagbo will be proclaimed president today. It screened footage late yesterday of General Philippe Mangou, chief of the armed forces, accompanied by the heads of the police, gendarmerie, navy and Republican Guard, going to congratulate Gbagbo.

“We have come to greet the president of the republic, we are here to express our admiration and to reiterate our availability and our loyalty, and to tell him that we are ready to take on any mission that he will entrust us with,” he said.

Youssouf Bakayoko, president of the electoral commission, said on Dec. 2 that Ouattara won 54.1 percent of the ballot, or 2.5 million votes, while Gbagbo received 45.9 percent, or 2.1 million.

“I, as certifier of this election, have completed the analysis and evaluation of the tally sheets,” Choi told reporters yesterday. “Candidate Ouattara is the winner.”

The Constitutional Council annulled the results in seven regions in the north of the country, alleging irregularities, and gave victory to Gbagbo, Paul Yao N’Dre, its president, said in a statement read on television yesterday. The announcement sparked violent protests in the commercial capital, Abidjan.

U.N., France

Choi said the denial of Ouattara’s victory had “no factual basis,” and that “even if all the complaints” about the election “were taken into account,” Ouattara would still be the winner.

“Gbagbo’s desire to hang onto his presidency, seemingly at all costs, could push the country over the edge into another civil war,” Gus Selassi, an analyst at IHS Global Insight, said in e-mailed comments.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a statement in New York saying he supports Choi and congratulating Ouattara.

Ban urged Gbagbo and “all Ivorians to accept the certified outcome and to work together in a spirit of peace and reconciliation.”

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France described Ouattara’s victory in the former French colony, which became independent in 1960, as “uncontestable and certain,” and called for an orderly transition of power.

‘Ridiculous’

“I am calling on the military and civilian authorities to respect the people’s choice and refrain from any initiative that could cause violence,” Sarkozy said today in Bangalore, India, at the start of a four-day state visit.

The council’s “decision is ridiculous and anti- democratic,” Anne Ouloto, a spokeswoman for Ouattara, said by phone. “Laurent Gbagbo has just proclaimed himself president of Ivory Coast through his friend Paul Yao N’Dre. This is a farce.”

Youths took to the streets in protest in Koumassi, a suburb of Abidjan, where Ouattara has a lot of support.

“The young guys are burning tires,” Hamed Coulibaly, who lives in the neighborhood, said by phone yesterday. “There is a lot of smoke and noise. I can smell teargas.”

Borders Sealed

The army has sealed off all the country’s borders until further notice, the military said in a statement read out on state television late yesterday. Foreign television and radio signals have been jammed indefinitely, the National Broadcasting Council said in a separate statement.

The African Union expressed “deep concern” at developments in the Ivory Coast, saying the will of the people and the outcome of the election needed to be respected.

“Any other approach risks plunging Ivory Coast into a crisis with incalculable consequences for the country, as well as for the region and the continent as a whole,” the continental grouping said in an e-mailed statement.

Cocoa for March delivery climbed $67, or 2.3 percent, to 2,935 pounds in New York yesterday after jumping 4 percent the day before.

Ivory Coast’s growth has averaged 1.1 percent in the eight years since the conflict started as the cocoa-dependent country missed out on the wave of foreign investment in Africa from nations such as China.

Violence Possible

Supporters of Gbagbo, 65, hold Ouattara, 68, responsible for the revolt in 2002; a charge he denies. The rebels say they attempted to seize power because northerners were treated as second-class citizens.

“There is a very strong possibility that if things are not settled within the next couple of weeks, we could see an all-out breakout of violence,” said Oswald Felli, head of security and violent risk assessments with New York-based DaMina Advisors. Regional leaders, including Ghana’s President John Atta Mills and Burkina Faso leader Blaise Compaore, may need to “push for a unity government with Ouattara as the number one, but with Gbagbo retaining some powers,” Felli said in a phone interview.

--With assistance from Bill Varner at the United Nations, Jason McLure in Accra and Mike Cohen in Cape Town. Editors: John Kohut, Robert Valpuesta.

To contact to reporters on this story: Pauline Bax and Olivier Monnier in Abidjan via Accra at ebowers1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.

Spain Declares State of Emergency for Air Traffic Control Strike

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 03:36 AM PST

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By Sharon Smyth

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Spain will declare a state of emergency which could last as long as 15 days after the country’s air traffic controllers went on strike, Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Rubalcaba said in a televised press conference following a cabinet meeting today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sharon Smyth in Madrid at ssmyth2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mike Harrison at mharrison5@bloomberg.net

Trichet Challenges Budgets as Spain Steps Up Measures

Posted: 04 Dec 2010 01:08 AM PST

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By Emma Ross-Thomas and James Hertling

(Updates with Sarkozy meeting in ninth paragraph.)

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet challenged political leaders to do more to fix their budgets as Spain ramped up measures to fight the threat of contagion.

“We have the same message for all countries -- ‘take all measures to make next year’s fiscal objectives credible,’” he told RTL radio in Paris yesterday. Germany said no ad hoc European Union talks are planned today or tomorrow on the region’s ongoing sovereign debt crisis.

European finance ministers have spent the past three weekends locked in talks on how to rescue Ireland and stop the region’s debt turmoil from engulfing Spain. With Spanish bonds plunging the most in at least 11 years on Nov. 30, the government is rolling out new deficit-cutting steps just one week after saying they wouldn’t be needed.

Spain’s Cabinet yesterday raised tax on tobacco and set a date for a pension overhaul, two days after saying it plans to raise about 14 billion euros ($18.4 billion) from selling stakes in the airport operator and lottery company.

“Time has run out; we have been talking for months,” Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told reporters, referring to the pension plan. “We are going to work even harder to reach agreements.”

Euro region finance ministers are scheduled to meet in Brussels on Dec. 6 for a regular meeting.

Market Rout

A market rout in the aftermath of Ireland’s bailout forced Trichet’s ECB into a new wave of bond purchases this week. The extra yield that investors demand to hold Portuguese 10-year bonds over German bunds yesterday fell below 300 basis points for the first time since August. Ireland’s 10-year yield plunged 30 basis points to 8.2 percent yesterday and the Spanish 10-year yield, which hit 5.67 percent on Nov. 30, closed at 5.1 percent.

The latest round of the crisis is forcing leaders once more to assert their support for the euro.

Trichet said he discussed “an overview of the euro zone,” including its economy, at a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris yesterday. Sarkozy said the euro was credible and had become “the second global reserve currency,” the government said in a statement.

“The German government stands behind the euro,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday in Bayreuth, Germany. “It is fighting for a stable euro and will do everything within its power” to push other EU countries toward embracing a “culture of stability” in their public finances.

Options

Options for EU leaders should the crisis worsen include boosting their 750 billion-euro ($992 billion) temporary rescue fund or turning it into an asset-buying program, cutting interest rates on bailout loans or issuing joint bonds for the 16 euro nations.

Trichet himself is putting pressure on EU governments to increase their crisis-fighting arsenal, indicating yesterday that the emergency fund could be stocked up. Asked about the size of the cash pool yesterday, he said that “everything they do needs to be commensurate to dimension of the challenges.”

“This is true in all domains, qualitative as well as quantitative,” he said. “They must go as far as possible and be as effective as possible.”

News on the credit crisis: {NI CRUNCH <GO>} Bailout and rescue programs: {RESQ <GO>} Spreads between German 10-year bonds and Portugal’s: {GDBR10 Index GSPT10YR Index HS D <GO>} Greece’s: {GDBR10 Index GGGB10YR Index HS D <GO>} Spain’s: {GDBR10 Index GSPG10YR Index HS D <GO>}

--With assistance from Simone Meier in Zurich. Editors: John Fraher, John Kohut.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor on this story: John Fraher in London at jfraher@bloomberg.net

U.S. Economy Struggles for Full-Fledged Recovery as Jobs Lag

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 09:15 PM PST

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By Rich Miller and Timothy R. Homan

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy is struggling to achieve a broad-based expansion as companies remain reluctant to ramp up hiring 18 months after the end of the recession.

The unemployment rate rose to seven-month high of 9.8 percent in November as payroll growth slowed to 39,000 from 172,000, a Labor Department report showed yesterday. Hours worked and earnings stalled, while a record 6.4 million women in the labor force were without work last month.

The worse-than-projected job numbers followed a recent series of statistics indicating the economy was picking up steam. Sales at retailers rose by the most in eight months in November while manufacturing kept expanding, data this week showed.

“We haven’t hit escape velocity,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “We’re approaching it, but the coast is not clear.” He defined “escape velocity” as consistent economic growth of 3 percent or more and monthly increases in payrolls of at least 175,000.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a 150,000 increase in November employment, according to the median of 87 economists. The jobless rate, which rose from 9.6 percent, was forecast to hold steady.

The hesitant recovery means Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his central bank colleagues may press ahead with their plans to buy $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the middle of next year.

‘Validates the Fed’

The jobs report “validates the Fed doing what they are doing,” Bruce Kasman, chief economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, said yesterday.

It also puts pressure on lawmakers to extend tax cuts, put in place by former President George W. Bush, beyond their expiration at the end of this year and to renew aid to the long- term jobless.

“It’s critically important that we extend tax cuts to the middle class, the Bush tax cuts and the Obama tax cuts, and that we not pull the rug out from under the unemployed that are searching for work, and we extend the unemployment benefits,” Austan Goolsbee, chairman of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

The two-year Treasury note rose yesterday, pushing the yield down to 0.47 percent from 0.54 percent late on Dec. 2. Stocks ended higher, extending the biggest weekly gain in a month, propelled by a rally in shares of energy and metal producers as commodity prices rose. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 0.3 percent to 1,224.71 at the 4 p.m. close in New York.

Not as Weak

The jobs market is not as weak as the November numbers suggest, said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS in Lexington, Massachusetts.

“I’m willing to bet a fair amount of money that this number is going to be revised up,” he said, pointing to recent declines in claims for unemployment benefits. He put underlying job growth at about 100,000, roughly the pace of the last two months.

The Institute for Supply Management also said yesterday that its non-manufacturing index, which covers about 90 percent of the economy, rose to a six-month high of 55 in November from 54.3. A reading higher than 50 signals growth.

Private payrolls that exclude government agencies rose 50,000 in November after increasing 160,000 in October, the Labor Department’s report showed. Employment at service- providers, which includes governments, increased 54,000.

Factory Payrolls

State and local governments reduced employment by 13,000, as did manufacturers. The decline at factories was the biggest in three months.

New York City, facing a $3.3 billion deficit in next year’s budget, will cut its workforce by more than 10,000 over the next year-and-a-half, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s budget office said Nov. 18. More than 6,200 workers will be fired, and the remainder of the cuts will be made through attrition, his office said.

The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.

The number of temporary workers rose 39,500 in December, indicating companies are holding off hiring full-time employees.

“Our clients still are looking for flexibility because there’s enough uncertainty in the pace of the recovery,” Tig Gilliam, chief executive officer of Adecco North America, said yesterday in an interview. The Melville, New York, firm is a division of Glattbrugg, Switzerland-based Adecco SA, the world’s largest supplier of temporary workers.

Underemployment Rate

The so-called underemployment rate -- which includes part- time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking -- held at 17 percent.

“The labor market is capping off a very poor recovery this year,” said Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia. “I don’t think we’ll slide back into job losses, but being stuck in neutral isn’t good. While consumer spending has normalized, employers are uncertain about demand going into 2011.”

The report also showed the number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more increased as a percentage of all jobless, to 41.9 percent, the highest since August.

“It is really ugly right now,” said Anthony Johnson, 27, of Atlanta, who has been looking for a job since leaving the Marine Corps, where he was a warehouse clerk, 14 months ago. “It is so competitive. For every few jobs that come out, so many people are fighting for that one position.”

100 Applications

Johnson, who has a business degree, says he has put in more than 100 applications this year and had one interview for a job that was later filled internally. Some employers say he’s overqualified, he said.

In an effort to reach out to some of the nation’s largest employers, Obama met with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke at the White House on Nov. 29. The meeting is one of a series of sessions aimed at soliciting the views of companies, with the goal of spurring the recovery and adding jobs.

The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote today on Democratic proposals to extend a portion of the Bush-era tax cuts before they expire at the end of the month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.

Republicans have vowed to block any measure that doesn’t extend all of the Bush-era tax policies, saying that expiration of the lower rates for upper-income taxpayers would hurt job creation.

“Raising taxes during times of economic uncertainty and instability is the wrong thing to do,” Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, said in a statement.

--With assistance from Carlos Torres, Bob Willis, Shobhana Chandra and Courtney Schlisserman in Washington and Steve Matthews in Atlanta. Editors: Vince Golle, Christopher Wellisz

To contact the reporters on this story: Rich Miller in Washington rmiller28@bloomberg.net; Timothy R. Homan in Washington at thoman1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net

U.S., South Korea Agree on Revisions in Trade Accord

Posted: 03 Dec 2010 09:11 PM PST

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By Mark Drajem

(Updates with South Korea’s auto group reaction in 15th paragraph.)

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and South Korea agreed to change automobile provisions in a pending free-trade deal, gaining the support of Ford Motor Co. and lawmakers in both parties for the stalled accord.

Both nations will scale back initial tariff cuts for cars, and South Korea said it would allow more imports of U.S.-made vehicles that meet American standards and not Korean rules. The U.S. will maintain a 25 percent tariff on truck imports for eight years instead of beginning to phase it out immediately.

“This was the only way to reverse the historic, lopsided pattern of one-way trade with South Korea,” Representative Sander Levin, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a critic of the earlier accord, said yesterday in a statement supporting the agreement.

With almost $68 billion in trade between the nations, a deal would be the U.S.’s largest since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, and would help President Barack Obama meet his goal of doubling American exports in five years. It was backed by companies including Citigroup Inc., Caterpillar Inc., General Electric Co. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

“The free trade deal with the U.S. will bring huge economic benefit to both countries,” South Korea’s President Lee Myung Bak said in a statement on the website of the presidential office. Lee said the agreement will help the alliance between the two countries move a step forward, according to the statement.

Changes Requested

Obama requested changes in the deal, which was negotiated during the administration of President George W. Bush, to meet demands from lawmakers over what they called unfair Korean barriers to U.S. exports of autos and beef.

“Today’s agreement is an integral part of my administration’s efforts to open foreign markets to U.S. goods and services, create jobs for American workers, farmers and businesses, and achieve our goal of doubling of U.S. exports over five years,” Obama said yesterday in a statement. The agreement will increase U.S. exports by $11 billion and support at least 70,000 U.S. jobs, the president said.

Obama and Lee failed to seal a deal during a summit in Seoul last month, and trade negotiators from both nations spent this week huddled at a hotel in Columbia, Maryland, to resolve differences. The agreement needs approval by Congress before taking effect, and polls show waning public approval for trade deals.

Levin, Ford

Levin, a Michigan Democrat, and Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford lobbied to change provisions in the deal, which has languished since being signed in 2007. Ford Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally praised the result.

“These new provisions provide Ford greater confidence that we will be able to better serve our Korean customers,” Mulally said yesterday in a statement.

Representative Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican who will become chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee next year, joined Levin in praising the changes.

“I look forward to working, on a bipartisan basis and with the administration, to implement this agreement,” Camp said.

Under the revised terms, the U.S. will end its 2.5 percent tariff on automobiles in five years, instead of immediately or after three years, as was previously agreed. South Korea will cut its 8 percent tariff on U.S. automobile imports to 4 percent immediately, instead of eliminating it entirely, according to a White House fact sheet.

Safety Standards

In addition, each U.S. automaker would be able to send South Korea 25,000 cars a year that meet U.S. safety standards. They would be exempt from separate South Korean standards. U.S. automakers would also be given flexibility in meeting South Korean emissions and environmental requirements.

“We basically welcome the agreement as it removes uncertainty, helping companies set up business plans,” Huh Wan, executive director at Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, said by telephone today. It will also boost the competitiveness of South Korean auto parts, Huh said.

In exchange the U.S. agreed to higher tariffs on its pork products for a longer time period, a change that U.S. pork producers said they would accept.

“To get a final agreement, we needed to give a little, we needed to take one for the team,” Sam Carney, president of the National Pork Producers Council, said in a statement. “This is still a good deal for us.”

Beef Trade

The two sides didn’t announce changes on beef trade. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat who had demanded that South Korea drop restrictions on U.S. beef imports from older cattle, said he was unhappy with the agreement.

“I am deeply disappointed that today’s deal fails to address Korea’s significant barriers to American beef exports,” Baucus said in a statement yesterday. He said he would reserve judgment on the full accord.

American beef producers lobbied to get the deal completed quickly to gain an advantage over competitors in Australia by securing cuts in a 40 percent South Korean tariff. Once the deal is in place, U.S. pork and beef exports to South Korea could increase by $2 billion a year, the American Meat Institute estimates.

The agreement may help Obama repair a rift with the business community, which fought his efforts on health care and financial regulation.

“The administration has done its part,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said in a statement. “Now it’s time for the new Congress to make passage” of the agreement a priority. Donohue said the Chamber will help round up votes.

Trade Deal Critics

The changes Obama negotiated wouldn’t be enough to satisfy many Democratic critics of trade deals, Lori Wallach, the director of the consumer group Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch in Washington, said in a statement.

The Chamber “must be gleeful that they are getting the Obama administration to take ownership of another Bush Nafta- style trade deal that would simultaneously favor their job offshoring agenda and put Obama’s re-election in peril,” Wallach said.

Two other agreements, with Panama and Colombia, were also signed by Bush administration officials and are awaiting approval in Congress.

“I had hoped for more from this White House, which campaigned on a need to change the way we negotiate trade agreements so that they truly benefit American workers and businesses,” Representative Michael Michaud, a Maine Democrat, said in a statement. “I will work with allies on Capitol Hill to do whatever I can to defeat it.”

--With assistance from Jungmin Hong in Seoul. Editors: Steve Geimann, Paul Tighe

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net

Business News: The Sick-Day Bounty Hunters

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