Korea

The USTR and her Japanese counterpart “shared concerns about unfair trading practices from non-market economies, such as China.”

SK Innovation Board of Directors Chairman Kim Jong-hoon was in Washington, DC, this week to deliver an ultimatum to the Biden administration: Overturn the U.S. International Trade Commission’s ban on SKI imports of electric battery vehicle components or lose billions in investment, Kim told Inside U.S. Trade on Thursday.

The Section 337 investigation was requested by Ericsson.

The U.S. Commerce Department improperly calculated some antidumping and countervailing duties on Korean goods, a World Trade Organization dispute panel report determined on Thursday, handing the Biden administration its first WTO conundrum.

Korean President Moon Jae-In said on Tuesday that the country would consider joining CPTPP.

While plurilateral agreements are an important tool in securing new rules at the World Trade Organization, members should work to “multilateralize” them eventually or risk further fragmentation, Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, a candidate for director-general, said on Tuesday.

Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, a candidate to lead the World Trade Organization, says she knows how to close a trade deal. With the biggest trade deal of them all -- the World Trade Organization -- on the brink, Yoo believes the only way forward is to prove the beleaguered institution can build on successes on its way to reform.

The U.S. on Monday backed Japan’s invocation of the World Trade Organization national security exception in a dispute with South Korea over semiconductor materials. The U.S. has cited the same provision in challenges to its steel and aluminum tariffs.

Citing negotiations with foreign auto companies, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Sunday said he hopes those talks will “bear enough fruit” so the U.S. does not have to put potential Section 232 measures “fully into effect.”