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James Kim, AMCHAM chairman and former CEO of GM Korea, holds a press conference at AMCHAM offices in Seoul’s Yeouido District. (provided by AMCHAM)
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AMCHAM includes more than 700 business owners and investors
After US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the US would allow American companies and capital to invest in North Korea if it completely gave up its nuclear weapons, a group of American businesses in South Korea has stepped forward to emphasize that CVID (complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization) is the precondition for economic cooperation and investment in North Korea. This group, called the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM), includes more than 700 American businesspeople who are running companies or investing in the country. On May 15, James Kim, AMCHAM chairman and former CEO of GM Korea, held a press conference at the AMCHAM office, in Yeouido, Seoul, presenting the results of AMCHAM’s 2018 “Doorknock” delegation to the US. While acknowledging that there are numerous positive assessments of current developments with North Korea, Kim reiterated that economic cooperation and investment could not happen prior to CVID and called for a prudent assessment of the situation. AMCHAM Doorknock is a yearly event during which an AMCHAM delegation visits Washington to hold more than 50 meetings with senior officials from the White House, the US government and Congress and exchange views about matters affecting South Korea and the US’s trade relations. This year’s Doorknock was held between Apr. 15 and 18, prior to the Panmunjeom Declaration. Kim added that if North Korea reaches the goals set by the governments of South Korea and the US – that is, complete denuclearization – AMCHAM will consider ways to help develop the North Korean economy, but that achieving those goals is a prerequisite for such action. During the press conference, former AMCHAM chairman David Ruch suggested that a way for South Korea and the US to seek balanced trade was to purchase more US-made weapons and energy. In terms of the defense industry, Ruch said that expanding the US’s share of the South Korean weapons procurement market could increase American exports to the South Korean market by about US$8.7 billion a year. As for the energy sector, if South Korea increased imports of American LNG (liquefied natural gas) to 10 percent of its total energy consumption, US exports to the South Korean market would rise by US$9 billion a year. Redressing the pricing regime for new medicine in South Korea’s health insurance payment system would help counteract the adverse balance of trade between South Korea and the US, Ruch contended. Kim also reported that there had been considerable development and progress toward revising the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement and other trade relations between the two countries, including a dramatic reduction in the US’s trade deficit with South Korea over the past year. The AMCHAM chairman also said that GM Korea had not come up even once during the more than 50 Doorknock meetings in Washington. GM Korea has been the source of a controversy about investment between the two countries because of aid that GM Korea is receiving to normalize its business operations. By Cho Kye-wan, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
