hankyoreh

Assistant US Trade Representative for Korea

By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent

On Jan. 13, South Korea and the US held preliminary bilateral discussions in Washington on the possibility of South Korea participating in the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP).

This is the first time that the South Korean government has moved forward with preliminary bilateral discussions with one of the current participants in the TPP talks since it expressed its interest in taking part on Nov. 29, 2013. At the meeting, a South Korean delegation led by Choi Kyung-lim, Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, and Energy, and Wendy Cutler, acting deputy US trade representative, discussed the possibility of South Korean participation in the TPP and the conditions for participation

During the meeting, Cutler said that the TPP negotiations between the current member countries would conclude as early as next month, hinting that it would be difficult to bring a new country into the negotiations at the present time. This reiterates the US’s standard position that according to the schedule, South Korea cannot join the official negotiations until the twelve participating countries have agreed to a text.

Cutler also reportedly repeated her request that South Korea swiftly resolve four pending trade issues - sharing financial data, non-tariff barriers on cars, certification of organic goods, and customs origin verification - before joining the TPP. During a seminar on Dec. 13, Cutler stated that South Korea is a “natural candidate” for taking part in the TPP talks since it has already agreed to implement high-level free trade agreements. But she also said that, regardless of this, South Korea must swiftly resolve pending bilateral issues that are causing concern for the US congress and American stakeholders.

In regard to this, South Korean representatives reportedly explained that work is underway on revising the domestic regulations related to these four trade issues regardless of the TPP.

The trade mission led by Choi is also scheduled to hold preliminary bilateral talks with Mexico (Jan. 15), Chile (Jan. 17), and Peru (Jan. 21). Meanwhile, another delegation under the leadership of Woo Tae-hui, chief of FTA negotiations for the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, set off to hold similar talks with Malaysia (Jan. 21) and Singapore (Jan. 23). The steps required for joining the TPP are expressing interest, holding preliminary bilateral talks, announcing participation, holding official bilateral talks, and gaining approval from the existing member countries.

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