SEOUL, Mar 25 (Agencies): South Korea and the United States have reached an understanding on revising their free trade agreement (FTA) and on steel tariffs, Seoul's trade minister said Sunday.
"Agreement on the bilateral FTA and steel issues has been reached in principle," Kim Hyun-chong said on arrival at Incheon International Airport after talks in Washington, Yonhap news agency reported.
Some technical issues need to be settled at working level but are likely to be concluded shortly, the minister was quoted as saying.
US officials had said Friday an agreement could be announced in the coming week.
Kim said Seoul was able to defend its "red line" on farm goods and no additional concessions were made over tariffs.
He said the agreement eliminated uncertainties related to steel and should allow South Korean products to be shipped to the United States, adding more details would be released Monday after he reports to cabinet.
The Trump administration in July convened talks to renegotiate the free trade treaty, arguing the 2012 deal was lopsided because the US trade deficit had ballooned since it was signed.
President Donald Trump said Friday the two sides were "very close" to finalising the updated pact "and we're going to have a wonderful deal with a wonderful ally."
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Washington and Seoul were also near agreement on the steel and aluminium tariffs which Trump recently imposed. South Korea is one of seven economies temporarily exempt from the duties that went into effect Friday and were mainly aimed at overproduction by China.
Despite fears of a tit-for-tat trade war that have sent global markets tumbling, Trump said many countries are now coming to the table to negotiate "fair" trade deals with the United States.
The US trade deficit with South Korea has declined since 2014, to $10.3 billion last year.
Meanwhile, the US government's latest tariff plan on Chinese imports has raised concerns of various quarters of German society that the trade protectionist move will lead to "multiple losses."
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China and restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States.
The threat of a trade war has become an important concern of the European Union (EU)'s spring summit this week in Brussels, Belgium.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated during the summit that the EU countries unanimously support free trade and oppose trade protectionism.
German Economic Minister Peter Altmaier said he also believed that free and fair global trade is in the interest of all parties.
In addition to the appeal from politicians, German media, business leaders and analysts also voiced their disapproval of the U.S. tariff plan.
Leading business newspaper Handelsblatt published on Friday a commentary titled "Trump's trade war is doomed to failure," arguing that his desire to knock open the door of the Chinese market through trade war is doomed to fail, and it is more of a hindrance than a help to the United States and other countries.
Through the trade war, Trump will only learn the basic common sense of foreign trade: the high costs caused by tariffs will ultimately be paid by U.S. companies and consumers, it said.
Trade disputes must be resolved ultimately based on rules within the framework of the World Trade Organization, it added.
"It would be better to tackle the existing problems with negotiations rather than with unilateral tariff measures," Gabriel Felbermayr, director of the Center for International Economics at the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, a Munich-based institution, told Xinhua on Friday.
Martin Wansleben, chief executive of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, said the U.S. action to impose large-scale tariffs on Chinese goods is in disregard of international rules and agreements, and is tantamount to "playing with fire," which will eventually lead to no winners.
In a world where all economies are closely interdependent,and the U.S. move will also affect Germany and the EU as a consequence, Wansleben added.
