One more round of US free trade talks scheduled in February
2007/01/13
One more round of U.S. free trade talks scheduled in February
By Kim Deok-hyun
SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Yonhap) — South Korea and the U.S. have "tentatively" scheduled one more round of free trade talks for February, South Korean officials said Saturday, an indication that they may be unable to wrap up the deal in the upcoming round.
The two countries are scheduled to open a six-round of free trade talks in Seoul on Monday amid few sings that a mutually acceptable deal would be possible before the end of March as targeted.
Negotiators are racing against time as U.S. officials have until April 2 to wrap up the negotiations and present a deal for a mandatory 90-day review by their congress to vote on it without amendments under U.S. President George W. Bush’s "fast-track" trade promotion authority.
In a report to its parliament on Saturday, South Korea’s Foreign Affairs and Trade said that a seventh round is "tentatively" scheduled for February in the U.S.
"As you know, no officials here believe free trade talks with the U.S. will be wrapped up during the sixth round next week," Lee Jei-hyung, a ministry spokesman told Yonhap News Agency by telephone. "Officials here believe a seventh round is needed next month."
Prospects for the sixth round in Seoul look shaky as both sides are wide apart over a number of thorny issues including anti-dumping laws, autos, medicine and beef.
Apparently upset by Washington’s refusal to address its key demand to ease its anti-dumping rule, South Korea already said it will refuse discussions of autos, medicine and other issues of U.S. concerns in this round of talks.
In Saturday’s parliamentary report, the Seoul government said it instead will focus on "less sensitive" issues such as tariff reductions on industrial goods, competition and intellectual property rights.
"During the sixth round, South Korea will focus on making concessions on ordinary issues to practically move forward overall negotiations," the report said.
"Unless the U.S. side shows sincerity on the issue of trade remedies, we will keep suspending discussions on trade remedies, automobiles and medicine," it said.
The mood among South Korean delegates remains subdued after the U.S. rejected outright one of their key demands for eliminating or restricting the imposition of U.S. anti-dumping duties on imports from South Korea.
South Korean officials believe that the U.S. has so far overly used its anti-dumping rules to block shipments of semiconductors and other high-tech Korean industrial goods.
The Koreans have strongly indicated that they would not address such key U.S. interests as opening wider South Korea’s lucrative automobile and medicine sectors unless the issue of trade remedies is not resolved.
Also looming as a potential deal-breaker is Washington’s growing displeasure with South Korea’s strict quarantine inspections that have virtually blocked U.S. beef imports.
Lifting a three-year ban on U.S. beef imports caused by the discovery of a case of mad cow disease in the U.S., South Korea allowed shipments in September on condition that no bones be included in them.
South Korea has since turned back three shipments of U.S. beef totaling 22.3 tons after some bone fragments were found in the meat. U.S. officials protested that South Korea employed excessively strict rules to block U.S. imports.
The South Korean agreement to allow in boneless U.S. beef is for health reasons. Scientists say that mad cow disease can be transmitted to humans through bone marrow of cows infected with the deadly disease.
