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Korea has agreed to open more of its agriculture market and the U.S. more of its textile market than either had hoped. In their third round of free trade negotiations underway in Seattle, the two sides narrowed their differences on the two most contentious areas on Thursday, the second day, in a breakthrough expected to speed up the FTA negotiations as a whole.
¡°The U.S. accepted our position that their textile tariff concessions were highly disappointing,¡± Korea¡¯s chief negotiator Kim Jong-hoon told reporters. ¡°The overall negotiations are going on smoothly.¡± In its draft concession list submitted on Aug. 15, Washington sought to minimize opening of its textile market by classifying more than half of textile items as exceptions to be kept out of the FTA or put under a quota system.
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Kim Jong-hoon, Seoul¡¯s chief negotiator for the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, talks to reporters at the Westin Hotel in Seattle on Thursday.
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In return for the climbdown, Korea will open more of its agricultural market. Its initial concession list classified 284 agricultural items or 20 percent of the total of 1,531 items as exceptions, which fell far short of the U.S. demand that it throw open the entire farm product market within 10 years. But an Agriculture and Forestry Ministry official said Korea remains determined to keep major agricultural goods topped by the national staple rice out of the FTA.
The two sides agreed to swap new concession lists, with Washington¡¯s due Friday and Korea¡¯s in mid-September. They also agreed to revise concession lists for manufactured goods. On services, the U.S. asked Korea to raise the ceiling on foreign equity ownership of cable networks from 49 percent to 51 percent, but that did not extend to terrestrial TV networks. As for financial services, the two agreed that U.S. asset management firms can operate funds created by Korean financial institutions here.
While overall negotiations are proceeding more smoothly, the U.S. remains reluctant to ease anti-dumping restrictions, one of Korea¡¯s top priorities. ¡°There are signs that the U.S. is becoming gradually positive in the negotiations,¡± Kim said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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