On January 5, 2018, representatives from the United States and South Korea met in Washington, DC to begin negotiations regarding possible changes to the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). After the day-long discussions, United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer said that the two countries “have much work to do to reach an agreement that serves the economic interests of the American people. Our goals are clear: we must achieve fair and reciprocal trade between our two nations. We will move forward as expeditiously as possible to achieve this goal.”

As previously reported, in July 2017, Ambassador Lighthizer formally notified South Korea that the United States was calling a special Joint Committee meeting under KORUS to “to start the process of negotiating to remove barriers to U.S. trade and consider needed amendments to the agreement.” Ambassador Lighthizer explained that the increasing U.S. trade imbalance with Korea under KORUS motivated the discussions: Since KORUS went into effect in 2012, “our trade deficit in goods with Korea has doubled from $13.2 billion to $27.6 billion, while U.S. goods exports have actually gone down.” The Joint Committee held sessions in August and October 2017, and USTR announced in December 2017 that the two countries would hold “amendment negotiations” on KORUS on January 5, 2018.

The parties provided few details about the January 5 discussions, but a USTR press release states that both countries “engaged on their priority areas of interest during the day-long session” and the United States specifically “discussed proposals to move towards fair and reciprocal trade in key industrial goods sectors, such as autos and auto parts, as well as to resolve additional cross-cutting and sector-specific barriers impacting U.S. exports.” According to the chief USTR negotiator for the current KORUS agreement, and given the fact that USTR has “not notified Congress of its intention to renegotiate the agreement, something that is required before substantial changes are made,” the United States may not “be seeking to significantly alter the terms of the deal or that, although it is seeking changes from South Korea, it is not willing to make big concessions itself.”

Later in January, USTR announced that the parties would hold another round of discussions in South Korea on January 31 and February 1. According to USTR, the United States “will engage on priority areas with the goal of moving towards fair and reciprocal trade and resolving additional cross-cutting and sector-specific barriers impacting U.S. exports.” Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy explained that “the two sides will further discuss the issues raised at the first round of negotiations.”