A top official of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has highlighted the significance of the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement(KORUS FTA) in the wake of Washington's move to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership(TPP).

In a seminar organized by George Washington University’s Korea Management Institute(KMI) in Washington on Tuesday, Tami Overby, senior vice president for Asia at the U.S Chamber of Commerce, said the U.S. business community still believes the KORUS FTA is a gold standard agreement, adding it is the highest free trade deal the U.S. has in force for now.

Noting that Asia is a challenging place to do business, Overby said the KORUS FTA will become even more important.

Overby rejected Trump’s criticism of the KORUS FTA as a job-killing pact and a disaster, saying it is an “inaccurate statement.”

She said the U.S. is gaining trade surpluses with 14 out of the 20 countries it signed trade deals with. Citing an International Trade Center report, Overby said the U.S. trade deficit would have increased by at least billions of dollars without the KORUS FTA.  

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to withdraw from the 12-nation TPP.