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A Month
of Trump Administration, Impacts on Korea’s Trade - KITA
held ‘Conference on US Trade Policy Assessment and Outlook’ -
The Korea International Trade Association
(Chairman, Kim In-ho) and the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy
(KIEP, President, Hyun Jung-taik) jointly held ‘Conference on US Trade Policy
Assessment and Outlook’ at Trade Tower in Samseong-dong, Seoul, on February 20th
(Monday) to mark a month of Trump Administration.
This
event was designed to examine the rapidly changing global trade environment in
response to the launch of the Trump Administration a month ago and seek Korean
companies’ countermeasures. Some argued that since the Trump administration has
taken an aggressive stance such as the TPP withdrawal and renegotiation of
NAFTA, the Korean trade industry needs to analyze the US trade policy and consider
how to overcome the wave of protectionism and establish new growth strategies.
The first speaker, the president Hyun Jung-taik of
KIEP, gave a presentation on the evaluation and prospect of new US government’s
trade policy. The president Hyun Jung-taik stressed that Korea and the US
need to expand their mutual trust by promoting the positive impacts of the
Korea-US free trade agreement. He also mentioned that Korea should increase
imports and investment in the US, requesting to refrain from excessive concerns
over US trade pressure.
The
second presenter, Shin Seung-kwan, president of the Institute for International
Trade elaborated the trade disputes between the US and China and their impacts
on Korean trade business and anticipated that the US-China trade conflicts would
have negative impacts on Korea's exports to China as well as the United States.
He emphasized to prepare a contingency plans for the worst situation as Korea
is highly dependent on trade and its exports to G2 (the US and China) account
for 40 percent of the total.
After
the presentations, about one hundred people including employees and executive
members of organizations, research centers and companies participated in the
conference hosted by the professor Park Tae-ho of Seoul National University. CEOs
of trade companies and professors took part in the conference as panels. In
particular, a participant who is working for trade business asked the experts’
opinions on the countermeasures of Korean companies who have invested in
overseas such as Vietnam and Mexico.
Chairman Kim In-Ho of the Korea International Trade
Association, the organizer of the conference, stressed "The Korean trade
has transformed the crisis into an opportunity and has been growing by taking environmental
changes as opportunities for innovation.” He also emphasized “Korean companies need to set up production and investment strategies
against protectionism and improve the country’s competitiveness through structural
innovation with entrepreneurship.
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