US USTR Representative Visiting Korea After Successful Japan Trip... Expected to Request Supply Chain Cooperation and Participation in China Containment

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] Katherine Tai, the United States Trade Representative (USTR), will visit South Korea on the 18th to discuss trade issues. This official visit by the U.S. Trade Secretary to Korea, the first in 10 years, is part of an Asia tour and is analyzed as a strategic move to establish a new economic order in the Indo-Pacific region, effectively strengthening containment against China. Following her prior visit to Japan, where the 'U.S.-Japan Trade Consultative Body' was established to counter China, Tai is expected to send a message to the South Korean government urging active participation in the U.S.'s new Indo-Pacific economic order.

According to the government on the 18th, Tai will arrive in the afternoon and hold successive meetings with key government officials starting from the 19th.

At 2 p.m. on the 19th, she is scheduled to meet with Yeo Han-gu, Director-General for Trade Negotiations at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, to hold the '6th Korea-U.S. FTA Joint Committee' and broadly discuss bilateral trade issues. This Korea-U.S. FTA Joint Committee meeting is the first face-to-face session since the revised protocol of the Korea-U.S. FTA took effect on January 1, 2019.

Current Korea-U.S. trade issues include ▲ cooperation to strengthen supply chains in key industries such as semiconductors ▲ investigation by the U.S. government into semiconductor companies' supply chain data ▲ steel tariffs under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act ▲ cooperation on technology and digital trade ▲ and collaboration on climate crisis response. Many of these are related to the U.S.'s moves to contain China, so Tai is expected to convey to the South Korean government a request to actively participate in the U.S.'s global supply chain restructuring, which essentially excludes China. Digital trade cooperation issues are also expected to be discussed.

Tai will also meet with Ahn Kyung-duk, Minister of Employment and Labor, on the 19th. It is considered unusual for the U.S. Trade Secretary to meet with the South Korean labor minister. Since the U.S. government has emphasized a worker-centered trade policy, discussions on labor issues related to the FTA are anticipated.

She is scheduled to depart Korea for India on the afternoon of the 21st.

According to Inside U.S. Trade, a U.S. trade specialist publication, on the 12th (local time), Tai stated regarding the purpose of this Asia tour, "We will pursue cooperation with Indo-Pacific allies on key issues central to USTR's worker-centered trade policy, including environmental sustainability, forced labor issues, building supply chain resilience, and promoting digital trade."

Separately, Gina Raimondo, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, who is also touring Asia, attended the Bloomberg Economic Forum held in Singapore on the 17th and announced plans to establish an economic framework for the Indo-Pacific region early next year. This is interpreted as an intention to strengthen containment of China through cooperation with allies and to reorganize the economic consultative framework within the Indo-Pacific region, instead of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which China seeks to join.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.