Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon attends a meeting on the Korea-U.S. free trade deal held yesterday morning at the Blue House. By Ahn Seong-sik

The ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement will help accelerate negotiations of other major trade pacts, such as deals with China and Japan, a high-level government official said yesterday.

“Now that the Korus FTA passed the National Assembly, it’s time for us to focus on holding more intensive negotiations with the remaining countries,” said Deputy Trade Minister Lee Si-hyung yesterday at a briefing at the Government Complex in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul.

“Much of the government’s workforce was dedicated to pushing the Korus FTA through, which made it difficult to work on trade deals with other countries,” Lee said.

He remained tight-lipped, however, on the prospects of FTAs with China and Japan, saying that “the ministry will not be in a hurry to conclude the deals” but would “hold closer and more intensive talks.

“The passage of the Korus FTA doesn’t mean that other FTA negotiations would automatically be concluded soon,” the official said. “But they could speed up.”

Korea’s Strategy and Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan also told reporters that “the government will have to think twice and make decisions [on Korea’s FTA with China],” and for now “more discussions [among us] should take place.”

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Korea is in trade negotiations with 12 countries, including Australia, Colombia and Canada. It is also in the process of conducting research or holding working-level discussions with 17 other countries, which include Japan and China.

The ministry said, “Talks with Australia and Colombia are unlikely to be concluded any time soon because there are still differences on key issues.”

Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, has so far concluded FTA deals with Chile, Singapore, the European Free Trade Association, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the European Union and Peru. The Korus FTA makes the United States the 45th country to start free trading with Korea.

According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Korus FTA is expected to increase the country’s GDP by 5.7 percent in the decade after the pact goes into effect. Around 351,000 jobs will be created over 10 years and Korea’s trade surplus with the United States is expected to expand by $138 million.

The Korea Development Institute predicts that with the elimination of tariffs, “Korea’s economy could grow more than 4 percent next year” despite the debt crises stemming from the euro zone and other global economic woes. The KDI said that without the FTA, Korea’s economy would have grown 3.8 percent.

The agreement with the United States will enlarge Korea’s free trade economic territory to approximately 61 percent of the world’s gross domestic product. That’s far larger than the free trade territories available to Chinese or Japanese traders.

Prior to the U.S. deal, Korea’s free trade economic territory accounted for 36.5 percent of the world’s GDP based on the deals made with economies including the EU, Chile, Peru, India and Asean.

The nation with the largest free trade economic territory is Chile, 87.3 percent of total global GDP, followed by Mexico’s 71.6 percent. Korea is now third.

“Korea has a foothold in becoming a trade hub in Asia, beating out industrial nations like China and Japan,” said Kim Ik-joo, head of the international finance bureau at the Finance Ministry.

The United States accounts for 12.8 percent of global imports, equivalent to $1.97 trillion as of last year. Korea and the United States will eliminate 96.1 percent and 94.9 percent of their tariffs respectively in the five years after the pact goes into effect.

Korea will immediately lift tariffs on 85.6 percent of U.S. imports, and on an additional 8.5 percent of goods in three years, and an additional 2 percent within five.

Since exports account for around 40 percent of Korea’s GDP, it is vital to increase trade volumes to maintain growth, thus the interest in similar deals with Japan and China.

FTA negotiations with Japan began in December 2003 and went on for six rounds over a year or so. The two countries made little headway until talks resumed in 2008.

With China, Korea began holding meetings on coordinated research in March 2007. The two countries haven’t embarked on an official round of FTA talks.

According to the Trade Ministry, Lee, its deputy minister, will visit Tokyo today for the 10th Korea-Japan high-ranking economic officials’ meeting, which analysts see as an opportunity to hold discussions on the current state of their economy as well as trade.

“We will report to each other policy trends related to the FTA and share information,” Lee said.

The Trade Ministry will have a meeting with China on quarantine issues next week, the ministry said.

“The purpose of holding a discussion on quarantine is to prevent worries from growing about sanitary problems that might occur when the two countries increase trading,” Lee said. “Korea wants to export vegetables like bell peppers, dishes like samgyetang [chicken-broiled soup], as well as cosmetics, but there are procedural hurdles in the process.”


By Lee Eun-joo, Song Su-hyun [angie@joongang.co.kr]


한글 관련 기사 [중앙일보]

자극 받은 일본, TPP 교섭에 속도…중국은 한국과 FTA 밀어붙일 듯


한·미 FTA 4년7개월 만에 비준
한·미 FTA 비준 세계 반응


워싱턴 “오바마에겐 다행스러운 일”세계 언론들은 22일 최루가스 살포 소동 끝에 강행 처리된 한국 국회의 한·미 자유무역협정(FTA) 비준 소식을 긴급뉴스로 보도했다. 미국 CNN방송은 긴급뉴스를 통해 한·미 FTA 강행 처리 장면을 상세히 전했다. 특히 김선동 민주노동당 의원이 의장석에서 최루탄을 던져 하얀 연기가 자욱하게 피어오르는 장면을 집중 보도했다. 미국 주도의 환태평양경제동반자협정(TPP) 가입 의사를 밝힌 일본은 한국의 FTA 비준안 강행 처리에 큰 관심을 보였다. 아사히(朝日) 신문은 “내년 총선과 대선에서 여야가 이 문제로 대립하게 될 것”이라고 전망했다. 중국 관영 신화통신은 사실 위주로 보도했다.

　◆“한·미 양국에 모두 축하할 일”=버락 오바마 미국 행정부 내부 사정에 밝은 워싱턴의 한 인사는 22일(현지시간) 한·미 FTA의 한국 국회 통과와 관련, “미국 정부는 매우 긍정적으로 생각할 것이 틀림없다”고 말했다. 그는 “합의 처리가 되지 못한 점에 대해서는 유감스러운 점이 있지만, 한·미 FTA의 조속한 시행을 바랐던 오바마 정부로선 다행스러운 일이라는 시각이 훨씬 더 크다”고 덧붙였다. 워싱턴 싱크탱크 ‘맨스필드재단’의 고든 플레이크 사무총장은 “한·미 양국에 모두 축하할 만할 일”이라고 말했다. 빅터 차 전략국제문제연구소(CSIS) 한국연구 책임자는 “한·유럽연합(EU) FTA가 한국과 EU 양쪽에 혜택을 가져다주는 것과 같이, 한·미 FTA 역시 양국 에 큰 이익을 가져다줄 것으로 확신한다”고 말했다.

　◆한국과 FTA 급해진 중국=한·미 FTA가 비준됨에 따라 중국이 한·중 FTA를 강하게 밀어붙일 것으로 전망된다. 한·중 FTA 체결 문제 논의의 최대 지연 요소였던 한·미 FTA 비준 문제가 해결됐기 때문이다. 한·중 FTA 는 미국 주도의 TPP 구상에 맞서는 카드가 될 수도 있다. 실제 중국은 최근 잇따른 한국과의 고위급 교류에서 FTA 협상을 조속히 시작하자고 우리 측을 압박해 왔다.

　◆일본 TPP 추진에 호재=일본의 경우 재계의 위기감에 따라 TPP 체결 협의에 속도를 낼 수도 있다. 노다 요시히코(野田佳彦) 총리는 11일 TPP와 관련해 “교섭 참여를 향해 관련국과 협의에 들어가겠다”고 선언했다. FTA 체결에서 앞서간 한국 기업들이 미국이나 유럽 등과의 무역에서 일본을 잠식하거나 앞설지도 모른다는 위기감이 작용한 것이다. 일부 전문가는 “한국 덕분에 TPP 교섭 협의라도 선언할 수 있었다”고 말할 정도였다. 현재 일본 내 농업, 토목·건축업, 제약업계의 반발은 여전하지만 한·미 FTA 비준이 TPP 추진파에게 순풍이 될 것은 분명해 보인다.