hankyoreh

By Jung Eun-joo　
　
The Lee Myung-bak administration officially announced Thursday that renegotiations are to take place on the South Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA).
In a press briefing at the Central Government Complex on Seoul’s Sejongno Road, FTA negotiator Choi Suk-young said, “To date, we have used the term ‘discussion,’ but in order to deal with the official plan presented by the United States at the bilateral trade ministers’ meeting, we will have to approach items involving revisions to the agreement text.”
However, Choi stressed that this would a partial renegotiation dealing only with the U.S. demands rather than a full renegotiation.
“We are not taking the whole thing apart and putting it back together,” Choi said. “We are carrying out extremely limited partial renegotiation in order to discuss the items presented by the United States.”
At the bilateral trade ministers’ meeting and working-level trade discussions ahead of the Seoul G-20 Summit, the U.S. demanded full revision of the existing agreement text, including the extension of the deadline for abolishing the 2.5 percent tariff on Korean automobiles, the introduction of safeguards in the automobile sector, and the abolition of duty drawback for automobile parts.
Choi’s briefing Thursday marks the first time Seoul has announced the renegotiations with the United States to the press.
Regarding comments that this contradicts Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon’s statement that “not a single period or comma will be changed in the agreement,” Choi explained that the circumstances were inevitable.
“It was a very inappropriate attitude in terms of negotiations strategy to say, ‘We will open up the agreed-upon text.’”
Choi also said, “If an agreement is reached between South Korea and the United States to implement different environmental regulations for automakers who import small quantities of cars into Korea, automakers in other countries that export similar quantities to Korea will enjoy the same benefits.”
Analysts are interpreting this logic as supporting the relaxation of environmental regulations on U.S. automobiles. If looser regulations are applied to automakers exporting fewer than 10 thousand cars per year to South Korea, as the U.S. is demanding, the benefits will apply not only the Big Three U.S. automakers of Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors, but to all foreign car companies except for Germany’s BMW, which exported 11,073 cars, and Audi-Volkswagen, which exported 13,252.
Experts say this is likely to lead to charges of reverse discrimination against South Korean car companies and the abandonment of environment policy linked with citizen health rights for the sake of the FTA.
Regarding criticisms that Korea is simply making concessions, Choi said, “There are areas where we can balance out the benefits within the automobile sector. South Korea also has its demands” outside of the beef and auto provisions mentioned by the U.S.
However, Choi did not offer specifics.
On the issue of the investor-state dispute system (ISD), where opposition parties and civic organizationsare calling for renegotiation, Choi dismissed this, saying, “This is not a subject for renegotiation, since we do not consider it a toxic item.”
Regarding increased openness for U.S. beef, Choi said, “The U.S. has continuously raised that issue, and it is likely to do so in the future as well.”
“To date, we have not acceded to the U.S.’s demands,” he added, indicating a possibility for negotiation.
　　
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