United States: Obama wants FTAs with Korea, Colombia, Panama ratified this year.

Section: General News - The Obama administration is committed to pass through Congress pending free trade deals with South Korea, Panama and Colombia this year, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday.

"We would like to pass all of them, alongside trade adjustment assistance, and we want to do it this year," Geithner told a Senate Finance Committee hearing. "They're overwhelmingly in our favor economically and if we don't do it, what it means is that business just goes to other countries." Some Congressional Republicans want to consider the three free trade agreements (FTAs) concurrently, but U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk has dismissed that as "a huge mistake." …