The Washington Times says that the European Union and South Korea have completed a bilateral trade deal while the 2006 U.S.-Korea free trade treaty “languishes unratified.”

In a column entitled “A Hesitant White House,” the newspaper says that trade between South Korea and the E.U. will jump by about 20 percent--exceeding current U.S.-South Korean trade--if Washington fails to ratify its pact with Seoul first.

The daily calls for the U.S. government’s swift action and decision, predicting that the U.S. will lose up to 25 billion U.S. dollar of trade and jobs per year if the country remains indecisive.