U.S. administration and congressional leaders have called for a drastic revision of the U.S. free trade agreement with Korea since U.S. President Barack Obama set forth a guideline for concluding bilateral FTA talks before the upcoming G20 summit in Seoul in November.

In a recent speech to members of the Communications Workers of America, Sander Levin, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means which oversees the Korea-U.S. FTA, called for revising the agreement. He reiterated the importance of improving access to markets of "all industrial products," including automobiles and beef.

Levin said U.S. companies currently "cannot ship refrigerators into Korea" while Korea has "a completely open market" in the U.S. 

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk Wednesday told reporters, "It's been no secret that the biggest number of complaints and concerns we've had about the Korean agreement were, in some people's minds, just the unacceptable disparity in market access for autos."

He said imported cars account for less than 10 percent of the Korean auto market, adding that it is hard to accept the fact that Korea sells about 790,000 autos in the U.S. a year compared with a mere 7,000 American cars shipped to Korea.

Kirk also complained about Korea putting restrictions on imports of American beef, although the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has classified the U.S. as "a controlled risk country" for mad cow disease, meaning the beef is considered safe.