U.S., Korea sign trade cooperation agreement, seek way forward on FTA
June 18, 2009
World Trade\Interactive
The U.S. and South Korea signed a new trade cooperation agreement this week during a visit to Washington, D.C., by Korean President Lee Myung-bak and other senior officials. The two sides also said they are working to resolve issues in the way of implementing their joint free trade agreement.
Details on MOU. On June 15, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke signed a memorandum of understanding on commercial cooperation with Korean Minister of Knowledge Economy Lee Youn Ho. Under this MOU the two sides expect to establish a consultative committee that will supplement existing bilateral trade policy consultation mechanisms and aims to achieve the following objectives.
High-Tech Trade. Deepening the collaborative high-technology relationship, including facilitating secure bilateral high-tech trade and investment by establishing a dialogue that will, among other things:
• share information and best practices on existing export control laws, regulations and policies related to high-tech trade;
• address issues such as the content and scope of control lists, classification of products, processing of license applications and other authorizations, preventive enforcement techniques and investigations of potential violations of export control rules; and
• cooperate in offering assistance to countries in need of export control support, especially with regards to high-tech trade.
Promoting Trade and Investment. The U.S. and Korea plan to (a) exchange information that could positively influence the bilateral trade and investment environment and (b) discuss ways to cooperate with institutions such as their respective investment promotion agencies to facilitate the economic success of companies from both countries.
Industrial Technologies and Standards. The MOU calls on the participants to discuss and encourage the adoption of best practices in the area of standards policies in order to enhance bilateral trade and lead global standardization efforts. In addition, the two countries will discuss possible ways to share information on government and private-sector research and development.
Work Groups to Discuss FTA Issues. Discussions between Korean President Lee and President Obama at the White House June 16 included the U.S.-Korea FTA. Lee noted that the two sides have initiated working-level consultations in an effort to make progress on the issues holding up further progress on the FTA, which Obama said include Korea’s concerns about beef imports and the U.S. desire to further open Korea’s auto market. Obama stressed that “we want to work constructively with the Republic of Korea in a systematic way to clear some of these barriers,” but he gave no timeline for reaching that goal or submitting legislation to implement the FTA for congressional approval.
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