SEOUL: Concerns are rising here over what is deemed as increasing U.S. pressure on Korea to do more to alter its trade practices and business environment. The pressure, which is expected to escalate further in the lead-up to and beyond the U.S. presidential election in November, seems related mainly to the growing trade imbalance between the two sides. Korea’s trade surplus with the U.S. jumped to $28.3 billion last year from $15.2 billion in 2012, when a bilateral free trade agreement came into force, according to figures from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
In a lecture to a local forum last week, Mark Lippert, the U.S. ambassador to Seoul, urged the Korean government to fully implement the FTA with Washington and step up efforts to ease regulations. He particularly called for the full opening of Korea’s legal markets, which he said would help enhance the quality of services here, create more jobs and reduce legal fees and the cost of doing business in the country.
His remarks, made to an audience that included some of Seoul’s key economic officials, seemed to reflect the U.S.’ hardening stance on Korea and other major trading partners that have accumulated huge trade surpluses with the world’s largest economy.
In April, the U.S. put Korea on its monitoring list for foreign exchange policies, along with China, Japan, Taiwan and Germany. It marked the U.S. Treasury Department’s first implementation of provisions passed in Congress earlier this year as part of a trade bill that provided it with new tools to tackle unfair currency practices. None of the five countries met the full criteria for enhanced scrutiny, which is triggered when a country has a significant bilateral trade surplus with the U.S., a material current account surplus and engages in persistent one-sided intervention in the currency market.
