In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, the Democratic leaders said Wednesday that the proposal the administration is prepared to put forward to open Korea’s auto market “is completely inadequate in the face of Korea’s longstanding iron curtain to American manufactured products.”

Pelosi and Hoyer also wrote they were disappointed the administration had not put forward a proposal on autos suggested by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Sander Levin (D-Mich.), who also signed the letter to Schwab. That proposal, backed by the “Big Three” U.S. auto manufacturers, would have exempted a 25 percent U.S. truck tariff from the negotiations, and linked U.S. tariff reductions on Korean vehicles to an increase in sales of U.S. vehicles in Korea.

Such a linkage is not the norm for U.S. free trade agreements, but the Automotive Trade Policy Council, which represents Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler, said in a March 20 statement that such “innovative measures” would ensure meaningful access for them in the Korea market.

The U.S. and Korea are in the final stages of trade talks that could be completed by the end of the week. The two countries face a March 31 deadline in order to submit a deal to the U.S. Congress under U.S. fast track authority, which prevents Congress from amending trade agreements.

Economically, the deal would be the largest U.S. trade pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, and could provide huge boons to U.S. agriculture exporters in particular.

Updates from U.S. trade officials to congressional staff have suggested the administration does not intend to take a new tact with negotiations with Korea and autos, and will not move forward with the Rangel-Levin proposal, a House aide said.

Separately, more than 700 labor, environmental and other groups sent a letter to Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) calling on Congress not to bring forward any legislation that would extend fast track for President Bush.

“The American public doesn’t trust this president to have more authority on anything, least of all trade,” said Lori Wallach, president of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, in a conference call today. Other signatories to the letter included the United Steelworkers, the National Farmers Union and Sierra Club.

Bush repeated his call for Congress to renew fast track in a speech yesterday to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.