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Trade News
S.KOREA,5 CENTRAL
AMERICAN NATIONS
INITIAL FTA
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According to the Ministry of Trade,
Industry and Energy (MOTIE) on March
12, South Korea and five Central
American countries have initialed a free
trade agreement (FTA), which is expected
to pave wider road for Asia's fourthlargest
economy to tap deeply into the
continent.
In November of last year, South Korea
and six Central American nations—
Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa
Rica, Panama and Guatemala—struck the
FTA deal, over one year after the two parties
launched official negotiations in June
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2015. But Guatemala has not initialed the
deal, as the country delayed its participation
in the free trade deal due to unresolved
domestic issues.
Under the deal, they agreed to eliminate
tariffs on about 95 percent of goods made
from each country within 10 years after
the pact takes effect.
The countries will officially sign it in
the first half of the year. After signing, the
free trade agreement will be submitted to
the countries' respective legislatures for
approval before it can be implemented.
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KOREA-U.S.FTA
RESULTS IN SHARED
ECONOMIC GROWTH
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On March 15, MOTIE announced that
despite a sluggish global economy, the
United States and Korea were able to
keep trade flows on an upward trajectory
thanks to the Korea-U.S. FTA.
According to MOTIE, Korea's exports
to the U.S. increased 3.4 percent on average
from 2012 to 2016. In addition,
Korean investment in the U.S. between
2012 and 2016 amounted to USD 36.97
billion, a 60.1 percent increase compared
to USD 23 billion of investment between
2007 and 2011. The expansion of Korean
firms like Hyundai Mobis, LG Chem and
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POSCO into the midwest, as well as
investments in factories and energy development,
is believed to have helped boost
America's manufacturing sector.
U.S. investment in Korea showed significant
increase as well, with USD 20.16
billion invested between 2012 and 2016.
In 2015, investments were at a record
high of USD 5.48 billion. Korea-U.S.
investments, which had been focused on
finance, insurance, electronics, retail and
wholesale businesses before the KORUS
FTA, were expanded into new industries
such as IT and biotech.
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Government & Policy
S.KOREA TO EASE NEW
ENERGY INDUSTRY
REGULATIONS
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MOTIE announced on March 2 that
following the 11th Trade Investment
Promotion Meeting held last month, it has
settled on seven measures to improve new
energy industry regulations.
Previously, a significant number of
local governments had introduced legislation
that restricted the installation of
renewable energy facilities such as solar
photovoltaic (PV) systems to be at least
100 to 1,500 meters away from roads or
residential areas.
The intent had been to minimize complaints
by residents about noises
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or light
emitted from the renewable energy facilities but the inflexible distance restrictions
had failed to take into consideration the
local environment or circumstances,
instead making it more difficult for companies
to operate.
The government has thus implemented
a new set of guidelines, specifying that
the distance regulations be repealed in
principle, or reset to a maximum distance
of 100 meters.
The new guidelines are expected to
enable the initiation of some 210 solar PV
projects (worth around USD 102.7 million)
that have been pending.
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GOV'T UNVEILS R&D
ROAD MAP FOR 2018
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The government unveiled its research
and development (R&D) plan for next
year on March 14 to secure a new growth
strategy to cope with the fast-paced industrial
transformation.
Under the road map crafted by the
Ministry of Science, ICT and Future
Planning, the government will increase
R&D productivity by securing critical
intelligence information technologies that
characterize the so-called fourth industrial
revolution.
The ministry said the plan calls for
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continued
support for the basic science sector
by injecting KRW 1.5 trillion (USD 1.3
billion) in 2018, up from KRW 1.26 trillion
allocated for this year, as the sector
will eventually lead to the development of
cutting-edge technologies.
The ministry said technologies such as
the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI are
forecast to generate business opportunities
and profits worth KRW 560 trillion
(USD 500.8 billion) by 2030.