Asia Times: US firms step up trade pressure



	January 21, 2000	atimes.com

The Koreas

US firms step up trade pressure

SEOUL - US businesses are reopening trade pressure on South Korea ahead of the US Trade Representative's (USTR) announcement of the National Trade Estimate slated for the end of March, says South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The US businesses insist that the Korean government subsidized agricultural firms, chipmakers, steelmakers and particularly shipbuilders with money from the IMF bailout, the ministry said, citing letters of opinion on each nation's trade barriers submitted to the USTR.

Domestic businesses are calling for the government to thoroughly prepare for ''unfair'' US allegations at a time when the nation is emerging from the economic crisis. The allegations are centered particularly on sectors whose trade volume is relatively big, they say.

According to the ministry, US chipmakers accuse the Seoul government of having paid subsidies in debt writeoffs in the course of pushing for ''big deals'' between chipmakers. Micron Technology has urged the US government to investigate, saying the Korean government has subsidized its chipmakers over the past two decades.

US agricultural firms are also grumbling that tariffs on some items are still high and that quarantine standards are too strict. Steel companies are also asserting that the government extended subsidies to the steel industry.

The ministry said the US has already concluded that the Korean government did not give subsidies to chipmakers. It added that the European Union had previously raised suspicions over the government's subsidy for the shipbuilding industry with the IMF, which turned out groundless.

''It's impossible for the IMF fund to be diverted into the shipbuilding industry because it is being strictly managed in a special account,'' a ministry official said.

(Asia Pulse/Yonhap)

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