Will US Change Laws for FTA With Korea?
Korea Times
Will US Change Laws for FTA With Korea?
The following is the fourth in a series of articles on prospects of Korea-U.S. negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). ㅡ ED.
By Kim Yon-se, Staff Reporter
25 July 2006
South Korea has three major demands in its free trade agreement (FTA) talks with the United States since June when the first round of bilateral meeting began.
The three demands are inclusion of goods produced in the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea in the FTA, banning the abuse of retaliatory tariffs, and easing rules of origin in the textile sector.
It seems that South Korea lacks willingness to push the Kaesong product issue amid a series of negative comments from senior U.S. officials, including Frank Lavin, U.S. under secretary of commerce for international trade.
I believe the government has dropped the Kaesong issue,'' Hanshin University International Relations Professor Lee Hae-young told The Korea Times on Tuesday. He is the chief of the Civic Gathering for Korea-U.S. FTA Boycott.
The two other demands are related to U.S. protective laws _ the Trade Promotion Authority involving anti-dumping and countervailing duties and the Yarn Forward rules of origin as a textile safeguard.
Korea's Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said the government will especially be active in calling for the U.S. to be more prudent in levying anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Korean exporters.
Pointing out that there are few sectors Korea can gain in the FTA, Prof. Lee said,The trade remedies sector including retaliatory tariffs is an extremely sensitive one.’’
Lee predicted that the possibility that the U.S. would accept our proposal is quite low. He stressed the revision of the law goes beyond the right of U.S. trade negotiators, citing the U.S. government’s stance that it would not ease the Trade Promotion Authority for an FTA.
An executive of Samsung Electronics said, The tariffs issue is handled by the principle of power. It would be ridiculous if we believe that our demand, no matter how strong it is, can penetrate the U.S. Congress.''
The U.S. has strategies not to allow made-in-South Korea products, especially clothes, made from imported materials from China or Taiwan, maintaining the Yarn Forward rules or upgrading it as Fabric Forward rules.
Prof. Lee said the possibility of a revision of the textile trading-related law is also low, adding,A feasible scenario is that the U.S. will merely provide Korea with a certain portion of quota for textile exports.’’
Ultimately, Korea is likely to gain only 0.5 sector _ obtaining textile export quota instead of easing the Yarn Forward _ after yielding 16.5 sectors, such as automobile and finance, to its counterpart, he forecast.
On a recent TV program dubbed 100-Minute Debate Inha University professor Chung In-kyo, a pro-FTA economist, said there is nothing to worry, saying, ``More Korean clothing companies will use Korean yarn or fabric for exports.’’
Democratic Labor Party lawmaker Sim Sang-jeong likened the situation to a soccer match, arguing that all Korean delegates stand in a defense line while many U.S. players are surpassing the half line, consistently demanding removal of trade barriers in many sensitive sectors.
