This result is worrying because it brings trade policy back to the 1980s and uses an instrument that operates outside current international rules. The commitment to unrelated national security issues to push Korea to make concessions marks a new approach to trade negotiations, which we will likely see more of the Trump administration. Open-form certification can be used by Korean manufacturers and exporters and U.S. importers as an alternative to original certification when they invoke compliance with the Korea Free Trade Agreement. In addition, most U.S. cars are exempt from Korea`s stricter CO2 emission requirements. To do this, the cap on green credits that U.S. manufacturers can use to “pay” to increase CO2 emissions will be increased to address the gap between U.S. and Korean emission standards25.25 In addition, Korea will continue to clean up key fuel economy witnesses and emit greenhouse gas emissions for manufacturers of small quantities of U.S.
vehicles that sell small quantities of cars in Korea. As with the increase in the quota for cars that meet U.S. safety standards, this change is expected to have minimal impact on trade, given the low level of U.S. exports to Korea. 39 The United States withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership in January 2016. The agreement was renamed the Trans-Pacific Partnership Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement and came into force on December 30, 2018, among the remaining 11 members: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. 9 Steve Holland, “Trump Hints on Withdrawal from U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Deal,” Reuters, September 2, 2017. At this time, North Korea announced a successful test of a nuclear weapon that could be loaded onto a long-range missile, which could have influenced the views of the United States and South Korea on trade issues. “North Korea Nuclear Test: Hydrogen Bomb `Missile`Ready,” British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News, 3 September 2017. Overall, the korus renegotiation is more a small change in U.S.-Korea trade relations than the global revolution that Trump and his trade advisers present as a revolution. That`s probably the right thing to do. However, concerns about KORUS were less prominent for the Trump administration than concerns about other trade relations in which the United States could take more aggressive action.
The escalation of the trade dispute between the United States and China, the continued application of various unilateral tariffs by the government and the blocking of appointments to the highest court of the World Trade Organization are at the heart of the concerns.
