U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab Tuesday urged Congress to approve the pending free trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, saying they will help the slumping U.S. economy recover from economic recession, according to Yonhap News Wednesday.

"In the case of the Colombia and Panama and South Korea free trade agreements, these are incredibly important free trade agreements for the United States," Schwab told a roundtable with reporters just one week before the inauguration of the incoming Barack Obama administration.

The outgoing chief U.S. trade negotiator recommended Obama administration officials read a report by the International Trade Commission that estimated the KORUS FTA to boost the U.S. GDP by $10 billion-$12 billion.

"And that's static analysis, not dynamic analysis, so it's probably significantly understated," she said. "You know, we could use that kind of boost … right now."

Schwab's remarks echoed the theme U.S. President George W. Bush made the previous day in his final appeal for congressional approval of the FTAs.

Bush said in his final news conference that he was disappointed that Congress did not move on the Korea and two other FTAs, warning against a growing protectionism in the world's biggest market.

He insisted that free and fair trade brings "benefits for our own workers, benefits for workers overseas and benefits when it comes to promoting development and helping lift people out of poverty, particularly in third world countries."

Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed in April to ratify the bilateral FTA by the end of last year. The agreement was signed in June 2007.

Neither parliament, however, ratified it, with South Korea's major opposition party blocking the ruling Grand National Party's bid to ratify it earlier this month, citing the failure by the U.S. Congress to move on it.

The Democrat-controlled Congress shunned the trade deal in recognition of major U.S. trade unions, ardent political supporters of the Democrats.

President-elect Barack Obama has called the South Korea FTA "badly flawed," citing an imbalance in auto trade.