South Korea and the United States have made progress in three of the most sensitive issues in their crucial round of free trade agreement (FTA) talks, Washington's chief negotiator said on Wednesday, and will meet again in February.
Asked whether the progress has been made at informal meetings with her South Korean counterpart, Ambassador Kim Jong-hoon, so far this week to resolve contentious areas -- antidumping laws, automobiles and pharmaceuticals, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler told Yonhap News Agency in an interview, "Yes."
While Cutler declined to elaborate on specific areas of progress being made at the informal meetings with Kim, she said, "My mood is upbeat and I feel we can do this." "We have had very frank and tough discussions," Cutler said as both sides entered the third day of the five-day talks, the sixth since June last year. "But I think they have been extremely useful and we are continuing them." South Korea and the U.S. started the sixth round of talks Monday after having failed to make a breakthrough on key issues in the previous rounds.
On Wednesday, 10 committees convened as scheduled in this week's round for discussions on lowering tariff and non-tariff barriers for relatively less sensitive farm and industrial products, both sides said.
Analysts believe that the amount of progress made in the sixth round will determine whether the much-touted free trade deal between the two countries can be clinched in time.
Both sides have been under tight pressure to submit an agreement by April 2 for an official 90-day review by the U.S. Congress for a simple yes-or-no vote. U.S. President George W. Bush's "fast-track" trade promotion authority expires on July 1.
Cutler, who described this week's negotiations as "very intensive" and conducted "with a new urgency," said the two sides will meet again in February.
"Though there is no formal announcement yet, I think it's safe to say on Friday we will be announcing another round. But beyond that, it's unclear," Cutler said.
"With respect to the number of rounds we hold, I think we will see a lot of high-level contact between now and the next round," the chief negotiator said. Last week, South Korea said in a statement that the two sides have tentatively scheduled a seventh round in the U.S. next month.
South Korea is demanding revision of U.S. antidumping laws, which it believes have often been used unfairly to curb its exports. The U.S. is seeking to protect its pharmaceutical patent rights and revise South Korea's tax system to expand its auto exports.
Although both sides have made progress in the knotty issues at informal meetings, obstacles seem to remain.
While her counterpart Kim said he will keep pushing the U.S. to change its trade remedy laws, Cutler said she won't make any concessions. If South Korea makes a revised proposal that doesn't require her government to change laws on antidumping and countervailing measures, she said, "the door remains open." In the area of automobiles, one of America's major concerns, Cutler underscored the importance of opening up the South Korean auto market.
"Our car manufacturers sell about 4,000 cars here, Korean manufacturers sell about 800,000 in the U.S.," she said. "So, I hear repeatedly from my Congress and my auto industry that they have high expectations on the concrete market opening in this sector," Cutler said.
To tackle the thorniest issues through unofficial top-level channels, Cutler indicated that South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong and Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Karan Bhatia may hold more meetings between the sixth and the next round. Last week, Kim and Bhatia held a three-day meeting in Hawaii, South Korean officials said.
"There needs to be a lot of contact between Ambassador Kim and me and people senior to us between rounds if this FTA is going to happen," she said. "I remain confident that we will be able to do this." Cutler disagreed with some news reports about a so-called "big deal" during the top-level discussions on antidumping, autos and drugs.
However, the top U.S. negotiator said she wants to "move forward in all areas as far as we can get and both sides will look at the package in the end." Still, Cutler said she isn't optimistic about making breakthroughs that both sides will publicly announce at the end of this week.
"But that does not mean the progress hasn't been made. It means that we aren't prepared to announce anything yet. And that's very typical for trade negotiations," she said, adding more progress has been made in "less sensitive areas" such as a tariff phase-out in industrial goods and competition.
Rice has not been officially discussed yet, as South Korea wants to exclude the staple from the deal. Cutler insisted that it will be on the negotiating table at some point, but said, "It's unclear whether they will get to discuss the rice issue this week." Cutler said the free trade pact negotiations with South Korea have been tougher than she originally anticipated, but added, "We have made a lot of progress to date."
South Korea is the U.S.'s seventh-largest trading partner, with two-way trade totaling $74 billion last year. The U.S. is also South Korea's second-largest export market, taking 17 percent of its total shipments. If successful, an agreement with South Korea would be the U.S.'s largest commercial pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.
This week's round drew a number of protests to the talks' venue, a posh hilltop hotel, with demonstrators shouting slogans and carrying banners against the proposed deal.
Thousands of riot police were deployed to guard against demonstrations.
Seoul, Jan. 17 (Yonhap News)
S. Korea, U.S. make progress on sticky issues in FTA talks, U.S. negotiator says |
