OPINION | While the North Korean nuclear threat weighs heavily over the entire conversation, the meeting between President Trump and President Moon is a unique opportunity to recast our current trade relationship.
Republic of Korea President Moon Jae -in’s visit to the White House this week is an historic opportunity to reassert old ties and address new challenges facing our two nations.
While the North Korean nuclear threat weighs heavily over the entire conversation, the meeting between President Trump and South Korea’s new President Moon will be marked by a unique opportunity to recast our current trade relationship.
The economic disparity following KORUS’s ratification can be found in U. S. Census Bureau data that shows that while U. S. exports to South Korea were virtually flat between 2011 and 2016, with $43.462 billion in 2011 and $42.309 billion in 2016, respectively, the U. S. trade deficit more than doubled from $13.2 billion to $27.6 billion during that same period.
One area of concern is that KORUS does not contain provisions protecting against currency manipulation, and this failure may be at the heart of why the American Automotive Policy Council states that “ almost 80 percent ” of the trade deficit increase between South Korea and the U. S. is in the automotive sector.
In a 2016 Voice of America News article, Matt Blunt, the president of the AAPC, asserted, “There is no question the Korean marketplace is one of the most difficult for any automaker to export into in the world.”
The same article points out that during the 2016 campaign, the president himself criticized the KORUS deal, saying it „doubled our trade deficit with South Korea and destroyed nearly 100,000 American jobs.“
Other issues have cropped up where major South Korean manufacturers, like Samsung and LG, have been found guilty by the U. S. Commerce Department of dumping washing machines into the U. S. at a price below manufacturing costs.
