Amendments to Korea-U.S. FTA cannot be carried out until objective review ...

After months of speculation,...
South Korean and American trade officials sat down to discuss the bilateral FTA on the
request of the Trump administration.
Seoul made it clear, there will be "no" ammendments unless an objective assessment is made beforehand.
Oh Soo-young has more from that meeting.
It takes two to renegotiate.
That is Korea's position on revising or modifying its free trade agreement with the U.S.
After holding a joint committee session in Seoul between trade officials from both sides,...
Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said he had firmly told his U.S. counterpart that
the bilateral treaty cannot be modified or revised-- as Washington has insisted-- without
a proper assessment of the treaty's impact on both countries.
(Korean) "We have not reached any agreement.
Seoul has certainly not agreed to Washington's unilateral call to revise or modify the deal.
We have stressed that there first needs to be an objective review which is conducted
by both sides."
The joint session had been requested by the U.S. trade office last month,... to consider
possible amendments... regarding market access in South Korea for U.S. businesses, but most
importantly,... to address what Washington insists, is an unfair trade imbalance between
the two countries.
(Korean) "We have explained that the FTA is not to
blame for its trade deficit, which doubled after the treaty's enactment-- it's likely
due to various micro and macroeconomic factors in the American economy.
In fact, Korea's goods surplus with the U.S. has narrowed about 30% in the last six months."
(Korean) "To protect American manufacturing and jobs,
the Trump administration keeps pointing out Korea's trade surplus in goods, which comes
to about 24 billion U.S. dollars.
But given America's service-oriented economy, its surplus in service goods hit around 11
billion last year.
So, Korea's total surplus isn't that sizeable."
In fact, the U.S. Trade Representative Office said in a report last year that America's
shipments of manufactured goods to Korea had actually grown by eight-point-four percent
by 2015,... after the FTA took effect.
That's double the average pace of growth the U.S. saw in its exports to other countries
over the same period.
In terms of jobs, the U.S. benefited from the creation of two-point-six million jobs
in the private sector by 2015,... roughly four years into the agreement.
Trade minister Kim said arrangements for follow-up talks had not been set,... and that Korea
will wait for Washington's response to its proposed analysis on the impact of the treaty,...
while preparing for all possible scenarios.
Oh Soo-young, Arirang News.

Amendments to Korea-U.S. FTA cannot be carried out until objective review ...

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