It has been three years since South Korea′s free trade agreement with the U.S. went into
effect. To tell us more about the relationship between
the two countries since then,… our Shin Se-min joins us live in the studio.
So Se-min, how has the trade agreement impacted Korean exporters?
Since the Korea-U.S. FTA went into effect, the trade volume between the two countries
has surged, stimulating business ties between the two.
Put into actual figures,… the trade volume between the two countries was over 115 billion
U.S. dollars last year,… up more than 11 percent from the previous year.
The growth is actually larger than Korea′s total trade volume with other countries, which
only rose by 2 percentage points in the same period.
Looking at the chart here,… Korean exports to the U.S. have been rising since the deal
went into effect,… from an export volume of some 58-billion U.S. dollars to over 70
billion last year. That′s a lot of numbers to digest,… but
all of this is to say,... that the business exchanges between the two countries perked
up,... buoyed by the economic recovery in the U.S.
Okay, I can see that there were promising signs for the business between the two countries.
But what about the weakening of the Japanese yen? What has the effect on Korean exports
been? Korea′s main rival in the global economy,
Japan, had been shipping out products with lower price tags.
But even with those products entering the global economy,... the market share of Korean
products increased to 3-percent. It may not seem like a lot,... but experts
say that the fact that it increased when other products were cheaper... means that Korean
products proved their price competitiveness. This is also partly due to a rise in the FTA
utilization rate between Seoul and Washington, which was over 76 percent,… 7 percent more
than the average of other nations with FTAs. Great. But even with the favorable outcome,...
when I go grocery shopping, I don′t feel like I′m benefitting much from imported
U.S. produce,.. like... oranges or cherries. Why haven′t consumers like myself felt the
difference yet? Yes. You′re right. But let me just put this
out there first. Korean consumers have been able to enjoy a
lot of U.S.-caught lobsters at lower prices,... as lobster imports have nearly tripled in
three years. But it′s hard for consumers like you and
I to feel the price drop for products like the ones you mentioned,... lemons, cherries
and oranges. It′s quite a skewed equation, especially
for agricultural goods,... as Korea has been importing larger amounts of such products
since the deal went into effect. And experts say it′s one of the issues that
still needs to be resolved.
"The distribution channel for agricultural goods is to blame for pricey U.S. produce.
The distribution system for such produce is much weaker than that for industrial products.
So unless cherries or lemons are things that every Korean consumes on a daily basis,...
the import volum