Seoul gingerly courts trade pacts
Inside JoongAng Daily
Seoul gingerly courts trade pacts
September 12, 2005 — Seoul is trying to adopt a more flexible approach to deeper international economic ties after the very public and very intense domestic brawl over the ratification of a free trade agreement with Chile.
In its new approach, the Korean government is trying to limit the breadth or increase the flexibility of new trade pacts ― for example, by limiting agreements to specific industries or sectors or by seeking agreements that would be only the first steps toward unfettered trade.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it is seeking opportunities for more agreements along those lines, although it characterized the plan as a response to other governments’ concerns about opening their markets.
"In order to secure market platforms in Latin America, we are planning to first sign economic partnership agreements that have lighter requirements than free trade agreements, which take more time to negotiate," one trade ministry official said.
Perhaps the first example is the agreement between President Roh Moo-hyun and his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, to begin negotiations on a partial trade pact called a "strategic economic complementation agreement." The pact would bind the two countries only to increase efforts to increase trade in services, boost bilateral investment and step up cooperation in high technology, tourism and fisheries.
"Mexico avoided signing a free trade agreement with us because of negative public opinion over the agreements in a country that has signed them with 43 countries so far, so we thought we needed a pact that emphasized economic cooperation in order to persuade them," one trade ministry official said.
South Korea, Mexico’s sixth-largest trading partner, has been eyeing a free trade agreement with Mexico in its effort to produce more vehicles there for the North American market.
Seoul will try the same step-by-step strategy with India; it hopes to sign a trade pact covering specific sectors sometime next year.
It is also preparing to sign a free trade agreement on manufacturing and some agricultural products with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations late this month and go on to negotiate an agreement for free trade in services after that.
The new strategy represents a marked change in strategy; an announcement by the government earlier this year said that Seoul intended to negotiate free trade agreements with 50 countries by 2007.
by Hong Byeong-gee, Jung Ha-won
