U.S. aims to ‘improve outcomes’ of KORUS

The White House moved forward this week to further talks with South Korea to amend the free trade agreement between the two countries, known as KORUS.    The White House moved forward this week to further talks with South Korea to amend the free trade agreement between the two countries.
   The U.S.-Korea (KORUS) Free Trade Agreement has been in effect since March 2012. However, President Trump recently called for the United States to withdraw from the deal, leading business leaders and some within his own administration to warn that it would be a mistake to do so.
   In July, the Joint Committee process was started to seek to remove barriers to U.S. trade and consider amendments to KORUS. The first special session was held in Seoul on Aug. 22.
   On Oct. 4, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer met with South Korean Trade Minister Hyun-chong Kim at his office in Washington for a second round of KORUS amendment talks.
   “I initiated Joint Committee discussions at the direction of the president to improve outcomes under this agreement for all Americans,” Lighthizer said in a statement. “I now look forward to intensified engagement with Korea in an expeditious manner to resolve outstanding implementation issues as well as to engage soon on amendments that will lead to fair, reciprocal trade.”
   USTR said U.S. exports to South Korea in 2016 were valued at $42.3 billion, less than $3.5 billion when the agreement was signed in 2011, a decline of 2.7 percent. U.S. imports of South Korean goods, on the other hand, rose nearly $20 billion over the same period.
   From 2011 to 2016, the U.S. trade deficit in goods with South Korea more than doubled, rising from $13.2 billion to $27.6 billion.
   One of the key areas which U.S. trade negotiators are expected to focus on is the auto sector. The U.S. deficit in the autos sector is $24 billion, an increase of 77 percent since 2011 and accounting for about 90 percent of the total $27.6 billion goods deficit in 2016, USTR said.
   Meanwhile, South Korea’s economy has been experiencing an uptick, despite the political concerns on the peninsula.
   On Oct. 1, South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy reported that the country’s global exports reached a record $55.1 billion in September, increasing 35 percent from a year earlier.
   “The strongest performance since the Korean government started tracking trade data in 1956 was achieved as exports of semiconductors and steel hit record highs and various sectors posted double-digit growths in exports,” the ministry said.
   “Semiconductor exports leaped 70 percent to a record $9.7 billion, breaking the previous record of $8.8 billion set just a month earlier and surpassing the $9-billion mark for the first time. This was led by rising prices of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips and demand driven by the launch of new smartphones,” the ministry said.
   South Korean steel exports more than doubled in September to reach $4.7 billion, based on rising prices for steel products and large shipment of structural steel to Norway.