SEOUL-- The top trade officials of South Korea and the United States on Thursday discussed the new U.S.-proposed economic framework in the Indo-Pacific region and major trade issues, including digital trade and Trump-era steel tariffs, Seoul's industry ministry said.
South Korean Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo and U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai held a teleconference earlier in the day, and discussed the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which the Joe Biden administration has sought to launch in Asia amid an intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry.
The framework calls for deeper cooperation with partner nations on a wide range of economic and trade issues, including digital trade, supply chains and clean energy, and the U.S. seeks South Korea's participation.
The meeting was the sixth between Yeo and Tai since Biden announced the IPEF blueprint in October last year.
"South Korea has continued discussions on the IPEF among related ministries and with civilian experts through a task force. We welcome the initiative at a time when cooperation is needed in the region, which is a key economic axis of the global economy," Yeo was quoted as saying by the ministry.
The U.S. wants a fresh economic framework, though major Asian nations have joined the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The CPTPP was launched in 2018 after Donald Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) the previous year. The partnership has 11 members, including Australia and Japan. South Korea is working to join it and China applied for the pact.
During Thursday's meeting, Yeo renewed calls for the U.S. to swiftly launch bilateral negotiations to revise the Section 232 tariff rules on Seoul's steel exports.
Despite Seoul's repeated call for talks on a possible revision, the U.S. has maintained a negative stance.
Tai told reporters earlier this month that South Korea is "actually already in a better place than a lot of others."
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo also said recently that renegotiation is not a high priority for the U.S., according to Reuters.
In 2018, the Donald Trump government waived the tariffs on South Korean steel products when enforcing the rules, but it was in return for a yearly import quota of 2.63 million tons of steel, or 70 percent of Seoul's average steel products export volume over the past three years.
In February, the U.S. and Japan announced their agreement to remove tariffs from Japanese steel imports starting in April after Washington granted similar access for European Union steelmakers late last year.
The U.S. also signed a similar steel tariff deal with Britain this month, deepening concerns among domestic players over their possible impacts on South Korean steel products in the U.S. market.
Source: Yonhap News Agency