Korea, U.S. to Begin Supplemental FTA Negotiations Next Thursday

Korea, U.S. to Begin Supplemental FTA Negotiations Next Thursday. June. 18, 2007 03:02. abc@donga.com sanjuck@donga.com.

Additional negotiations regarding the Korea-U.S. FTA (KORUS FTA) are likely to begin next Thursday.

The U.S. delivered a revised version of the final agreement text that reflected its new trade policy to Korea last Saturday and officially proposed additional negotiations. The trade division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Sunday that the Bush administration and Congress had concluded working on the provisions relevant to the new trade policy and made the proposal through the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

Although further details have yet to be released, the chief U.S. negotiator for the KORUS FTA is scheduled to visit Seoul on Thursday and Friday to talk about the revised final text, and chief Korean negotiator Kim Jong-hoon will represent the Korean government to respond to the offer. The government plans to review the U.S. proposal and set down its position about the possibility of additional negotiations while keeping the current balance in the agreement intact. Nonetheless, additional negotiations are likely to take place starting next Thursday since the Korean government, which has been keen on the ratification of the KORUS FTA, is not likely to reject the U.S. proposal outright.

The U.S. proposed a revision of the agreement in seven sectors, including labor, environment, medicines, essential security, government procurement, port security, and investment. The U.S. is expected to focus on demanding the imposition of countervailing measures, and eliminating preferential tariffs or duties on any party that violates clauses in the labor and environment sectors in particular. Sectors such as automobiles and agriculture, which have long been sources of discontent for the U.S. congress and the corresponding industries, have been excluded from the additional negotiations.

In the meanwhile, the Korean government will go ahead with plans to ratify the final text of the KORUS FTA at the end of this month regardless of the additional negotiations proposal, which may not end until the last day of June.