By Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL (Reuters) – The United States has called for better access to the Korean market, particularly in the agriculture and technology sectors, South Korea’s trade minister said on Sunday.
Trade Minister Cheong In-kyo was returning from a trip to Washington where he asked his U.S. counterpart, Jamieson Greer, to exempt the country from tariffs if they go into effect in April.
But he expected U.S. President Donald to go ahead with announcing tariffs on April 2 as scheduled, especially on countries like South Korea which have trade surpluses with the United States.
U.S. officials did not mention beef specifically, but they said Korea needs to take action in terms of sanitary and quarantine measures, Cheong said, also citing regulations on technology firms – areas that they said make access to the Korean market challenging, the minister added.
South Korea, one of the top importers of U.S. beef, has allowed imports of U.S. beef since 2008, but only from animals less than 30 months old, due to public concerns about mad cow disease. The restriction was cited as one of the trade barriers to South Korea in a U.S. report.
Greer also warned of the approach by Korea and the European Union to regulating U.S. technology companies, during a Senate confirmation hearing in February.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Bernadette Baum and David Holmes)
