ISDS Case Map
Korea
Leaked diplomatic cables on WikiLeaks showed that the governments of South Korean and the United States have been working in tandem to push ahead the free trade agreement despite opposition from US business circles.
Free trade agreement (FTA) talks among China, Japan and the Republic of Korea could start in 2012 as the countries try to reduce reliance on the United States and the European Union, Yi Xiaozhun, vice-minister of commerce, told China Daily.
South Korea will focus on autos and is not ready to discuss beef during the upcoming talks with the United States for the ratification of a pending free trade deal, the chief South Korean trade negotiator said Monday.
It remains to be seen whether beef will continue to be the deal breaker.
South Korea, China and Japan will hold a third joint study meeting next week on the feasibility of a free trade agreement among the three Northeast Asian countries, Seoul's trade ministry said Wednesday.
The Korea FTA would lift live US hog prices by $10 per animal and generate an additional $687 million in US pork exports, the National Pork Producers Council argues.
Both sides “are having a difficult time figuring out what the options are, given the damage that was done in Seoul” by not sealing a deal, Jeffrey Schott of the Peterson Institute says. “They’ve created a real mess.”
Korea will prepare new strategies -- said to include the protection of Korea’s relatively vulnerable pharmaceuticals and agricultural markets -- before resuming free trade talks with the US next month in Washington,
Korea's trade minister has admitted to parliament for the first time that US demands on the Korea-US FTA amount to re-opening the already agreed text.
Seoul is interested in forging a bilateral trade pact with Manila, the South Korean envoy said on Tuesday.
