Trade minister reiterates 'no renegotiations' of KORUS FTA

SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top trade official said Thursday that
the government would not respond to a possible demand from the United States to
amend a bilateral free trade accord.

"Even if the U.S. proposes renegotiations of the free trade deal, we don't need
to respond to it," Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon said on a local radio program.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who was sworn in on Tuesday, has said he favors free
trade that benefits the U.S. but strongly criticized the deal with South Korea,
known as the KORUS FTA, saying it does not adequately address an imbalance in
auto trade between the two nations.
Some politicians in the U.S. have recently underscored the need for South Korea
to renegotiate provisions of the pact covering trade in autos and other
manufactured goods.
In particular, many Democrats believe auto provisions strongly favor South
Korea's automakers and demand renegotiation of the trade accord on that basis.
South Korea sold more than 700,000 vehicles in the U.S. in 2007, 100 times the
number of American cars it imported, according to an industry tally.
Under the free trade deal the two sides agreed to phase out tariffs on autos,
while Seoul agreed to change its tax system for larger vehicles, which the U.S.
says is discriminatory.
"If the U.S. automakers want to increase their market share in South Korea, the
KORUS FTA will be a good opportunity for them," Kim said. "All the things they
have sought for years are included in the pact."
The accord is the largest for the U.S. since the North American Free Trade
Agreement with Canada and Mexico and the biggest ever for South Korea. The bill,
if ratified, will knock down tariff and non-tariff barriers between the two
economies, which did US$78.4 billion in two-way trade in 2007.
The agreement has yet to be put to a vote in either the the U.S. or South Korean
legislatures.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his Grand National Party have
consistently refused to renegotiate the trade pact, instead working at winning
its approval within the country's legislature, hoping that will pressure
Washington to ratify the deal.
Those efforts were met with resistance, however, when opposition lawmakers
occupied the National Assembly for two weeks last month in an effort to prevent
the ruling party from bringing the accord to a vote.
In a resolution to the dispute, the ruling and opposition parties agreed to
postpone the vote until after Obama takes office.
sam@yna.co.kr
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