The multilateral financial service talks resumed in Geneva,
Switzerland, on May 4, under the auspices of the World Trade
Organization (WTO).
At the talks, the U.S. is "expected to call for other WTO
members to level up their financial liberalization to that of the
OECD countries," said a senior official in the south Korean
foreign trade ministry, a call which he said would "likely face
considerable resistance."
In 1995, U.S. negotiators walked out of the financial
service talks, saying offers by other participants were
insufficient. Last year, Washington also strongly called for
south Korea's wider market opening in exchange for its approval
of Seoul's membership at the OECD. Korea's liberalization
schedule for its financial and capital markets passed entry tests
of American and other OECD members at the time. Now South Korean
trade officials say that "the U.S. officials appear set to make
Korea an example for other WTO members to upgrade their
liberalization levels to those of OECD nations."
The U.S. is also expected to call for increased
liberalization from Seoul. The U.S. steel industry has been
raising what they allege is the Korean government's subsidization
of local steelmakers, according to a report from the Korea
International Trade Association's (KITA) Washington bureau.
At a dialogue between American steel industrialists and the
Congress Steel Committee on May 1, the U.S. Committee on Pipe and
Tube Imports (CPTI) complained that Korean steelmakers, through
capacity buildup aided by governmental subsidies, are supplying
hot-rolled plates at cheaper prices than American makers, eroding
the latter's market share. A CPTI representative then called for
the administration to slap countervailing duties on imports from
Korea, by applying the WTO's antisubsidy rule, according to the
KITA report.
At the same committee meeting, another steel industry
group, Specialty Steel Industry Association of North America
(SSINA), also said that it will file a complaint on imported
stainless steel bars and wire rods, including those from Korea.
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
