Little tangible results come out of S Korea-US FTA talks
The Hankyoreh, Korea
Little tangible results come out of S. Korea-U.S. FTA talks
8 September 2006
(Yonhap News, Seattle Sept 7)South Korean officials expressed disappointment Thursday at what they believed were low tariff concessions suggested by the U.S. in free trade talks under way in Seattle.
This week’s meeting in this U.S. west coast city, the third since June, ended the second day of discussions with no clear sign of a breakthrough on a range of issues, including textiles, agricultural products, cars and medicine.
But both sides vowed to achieve their pre-set goal to warp up the negotiations by year’s end so that their lawmakers can ratify the deal by June next year when the U.S. president’s "fast track" authority expires. The authority allows U.S. negotiators to strike a deal without congressional amendments.
"The talks are proceeding along their schedule but I must say I am disappointed at the suggested U.S. tariff concessions," the chief South Korean delegate, Kim Jong-hoon, told reporters. "I’ve asked them to make significant changes in their proposals."
As an example, Kim cited U.S. textile tariffs of between 10 percent and 20 percent which U.S. officials refused to lower to the level acceptable to South Korea.
"We expect the U.S. to submit a revised tariff concession on textile tomorrow," Kim said, adding that tariff reductions suggested by the U.S. for other goods also fell short of South Korea’s expectations.
South Korea, Kim said, is also demanding that the U.S. ease its countervailing duties and other punitive trade restrictions on Korean imports that can be taken outside the framework of an FTA to be signed.
"There was a positive change in the U.S. position on this matter," Kim said without elaborating.
About 1,000 product lines were on the table for tariff reductions in this round of talks which will continue until Saturday, officials of both sides said.
The U.S. levies an average 11 percent import duties, which Kim said should be lowered significantly for South Korean goods.
The United States has its own complaints with South Korea’s relatively closed market, according to South Korean officials.
South Korea, for example, imposes four times higher import tariffs on agricultural imports than the U.S. In addition, it is asking rice, the main Korean staple, to be excluded from the proposed FTA. The U.S. has already turned it down.
The two countries also failed to agree on how to handle goods South Korean companies make at a joint venture industrial park in North Korea’s border city of Kaesong. The U.S. refuses to recognize them as made-in-South Korea.
"There has been no progress on the Kaesong issue," Kim said.
The park is a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation. South Korea sees it as a window, through which its isolated communist neighbor can learn capitalism, but the U.S. is concerned that the North can use hard currency earned through the project for its weapons of mass destruction programs.
Currently, about 15 South Korean garment and other small labor-intensive firms are operating in Kaesong, hiring 8,500 North Koreans. When fully expanded by 2012, several hundred South Korean plants will open shop there with more than 80,000 North Koreans, according to Seoul government officials.
The U.S. is in conflict with North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs. Six-party talks on the North’s nuclear program has been stalled since last November.
In what was expected to boost its position, the South Korean government on Thursday lifted an import ban on U.S. beef imposed in 2003 because of mad cow fear.
Resumption of beef imports was one of Washington’s key conditions for starting the free trade talks with South Korea.
Before the import ban was issued in December, 2003, South Korea was the third largest U.S. beef market with about 200,000 tons a year.
In January, South Korea addressed another key U.S. complaint by halving its "screen quota" system of showing domestically made movies at local cinemas to 73 days a year.
"Compromises in beef and rice are very important for both South Korea and the United States to get the free trade agreement," said Washington State Agriculture Director Valoria Loveland told Yonhap News Agency on Thursday. "If rice and beef are on the table and they are sticking points, I hope South Korea and the U.S. find some compromises," Outside the meeting venue, about 100 South Korean and U.S. activists staged peaceful demonstrations against the proposed agreement. Some threw eggs at a scarecrow which they said symbolized a Seoul-Washington free trade agreement.
"Down with FTA," they shouted.
About a dozen bicycle-riding police escorted them.
