The United States and South Korea extended their free-trade talks deadline by 48 hours to reach agreement after failing to resolve difficult issues at negotiations on Friday. Automobiles, agriculture and pharmaceuticals are among the chief contentious issues on which both countries have conflicting views. The free trade agreement, if reached, it could boost US exports to South Korea by 19 billion dollars, and South Korea trade to the US by 10 billion dollars, the US International Trade Commission estimated. According to the reports, major obstruction include US demands that South Korea ease customs inspection rules for beef and further open its rice market. Other hurdles include cars and textiles, the Korean pharmaceuticals market and US anti-dumping regulations that are still unresolved. The prospective agreement would promptly remove 85 percent to 90 percent of tariffs between the countries. The two sides were at loggerheads on the issue to how to reduce trade barriers against American beef and oranges and South Korean textiles and semiconductors. Seoul at present keeps an average 52 percent duty on farm products, including 40 percent tariffs on beef, which has been disagreeable to American lawmakers on the deal. In addition to it, South Korean farmers and leftist civic groups have staged protests against the trade pact. They have argued that cheaper U.S. goods would cost thousands of jobs and billions in revenue for local farmers. In the meanwhile, South Korean sources quoted by Yonhap news agency that Seoul is likely to reopen its beef market, which at one time was worth 850 million US dollars per year to US farmers, on the condition that if Washington will stop pressing for a wider opening of the rice market. On the other hand, the White House warned in its statement saying, ‘the talks aren’t going well, and unless the negotiations show some signs of significant progress in the next few hours this agreement will most likely not come together’.