hankyoreh

According to a government report on the Korea-U.S. FTA obtained exclusively by the Hankyoreh, South Korea’s top negotiators to the talks have confirmed that their demands regarding trade remedies, including the hot-button antidumping measure issue, would not be accepted by the U.S.

But in turn, negotiators have deemed it necessary to increase pressure on Washington to press their demands in other areas of negotiation, according to the report.

During the FTA negotiations, Korea has pushed to have U.S. antidumping laws rewritten in order to allow Korean goods easier flow into the U.S. The U.S. has consistently refused to do so. U.S. companies have often filed complaints with Washington against South Korean exporters to impose anti-dumping duties. South Korea thought that U.S. antidumping laws has unfairly blocked its exports.

In the government report, South Korean negotiators said they plan to use the U.S.’s rejection of changes to antidumping laws as leverage to attempt to see its demands met in other areas during the ongoing negotiations with the U.S. on a proposed free trade agreement (FTA). This information raises speculation that Seoul is considering a "big deal" to produce a breakthrough in the trade pact, which has been under fire for being seen as favoring Washington’s interests.

During the negotiations, the South Korean team decided to accept the U.S. request, albeit partly, to allow either country to run an insurance business in the other merely by sending personnel abroad, without the need to establish a local branch. By the end of the fifth round of talks, South Korea had already allowed for cross-border business in four insurance sectors, including export/import, aviation, marine, and reinsurance.

On the intellectual property rights front, the South Korean government is considering accepting the U.S. request that "temporary storage" of patented or copyrighted information via computer should be regarded as an infringement. Seoul also accepted U.S. demands for tariff exemptions on money transactions conducted over the Internet, the report showed.

The current round of negotiations is being held in Seoul, with a total of 10 areas to be addressed, including the textiles industry, agriculture, and intellectual property rights.


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