ISDS Case Map
Korea
Trade will be top of the agenda when Prime Minister John Key meets with President Lee Myung-bak and Prime Minister Chung Un-chan in Korea later today.
US President Barack Obama is risking a revolt within his own party as he presses ahead on a free trade agreement with South Korea, setting the stage for a showdown after November legislative elections.
President Lee Myung-bak will hold a summit with Mexican President Felipe Calderon Thursday (local time) to discuss an early resumption of talks on signing a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), Cheong Wa Dae said.
Kim Jong-hoon, the trade minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said yesterday that there would be no renegotiations or changes made to the original Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement.
We remain deeply concerned about and strongly opposed to the U.S.-South Korea trade agreement as negotiated by the Bush Administration. The agreement would exacerbate our already lopsided trade relationship with South Korea, putting at risk thousands of good U.S. jobs in the auto, steel, and other industrial sectors.
South Korea is seeking to boost its partnership with Panama, a small Central American country that has strong ties with the United States, politically and economically, and explore the possibility of signing free trade agreements with regional players with the nation's help.
South Korea and Panama agreed Monday to forge a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) at an early date and expand economic partnership.
Experts say measures implemented after the 2008 candlelight vigil demonstrations may be sacrificed for ratification of the KORUS FTA
At the South Korea-US summit in Toronto on Saturday, Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Barack Obama reached agreement on two major issues: a delay in the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) and “adjusting” the South Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA). Criticism is mounting that a trade was made between the two.
The US said at the weekend it will seek to complete a long-stalled trade deal with South Korea, while the G8 acknowledged deep troubles in global trade talks by shifting the focus to bilateral pacts.
