ISDS Case Map
Korea
About 15,000 South Korean workers demonstrated in the capital Seoul on Sunday, demanding the government stop free-trade talks with the United States.
Korea and the United States plan to hold talks next week on drug policy issues surrounding an envisioned bilateral free trade agreement (FTA).
With the trade-friendly Republican Party losing its grip on the House of Representatives for the first time in over a decade, there's growing concern that the ongoing free-trade talks between Seoul and Washington will face tougher conditions.
"Services have become a huge part of what developed countries are exporting," said Steve Norton, spokesman for the Office of the US Trade Representative in Washington. "The US permits foreign-licensed lawyers to work here, and it is reasonable that reciprocal treatment by Korea should be given to US lawyers."
The EU delegates and South Korean officials will discuss levying a preferential tariff on Kaesong products for a South Korea-EU free trade agreement (FTA).
South Korea and the United States ended five-day talks on a free trade deal Friday with little headway.
The Korean government has pledged behind-the-scenes to accept US demands for reducing the screen quota to remove obstacles to free trade agreement (FTA) talks, according to a ministry memo obtained by The Korea Times. "Our position for the future is that Korea will by all means keep its promise to the US to maintain the reduced screening quota (or further curtail it). It is a promise between the two countries," said the memo.
Militant protests have taken place daily during the fourth round of negotiations for the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.
While the 4th US-Kore FTA were in progress in Jeju Island, 101 scholars related to sociology issued a statement, urging the suspension of the negotiations. They noted that “the ROK-US FTA are highly universal problems directly related to the food safety and sovereignty of all people.”
US Trade Representative Susan Schwab recently had told a radio broadcasting company in California that the US will not continue its FTA talks if Korea does not remove trade barriers in the automobile sector.
