Kuala lumpur: Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo sought to boost South Korea's cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) while taking part in a series of ASEAN meetings in Kuala Lumpur this week, Yeo's office said Thursday, part of Seoul's efforts to diversify its export markets in response to escalating U.S. tariffs. Yeo is currently on a visit to Malaysia where he attended a series of ASEAN meetings that kicked off Wednesday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the meetings included a Korea-ASEAN meeting and the ASEAN-Plus-Three meeting that involved the 10 member states of ASEAN, along with South Korea, Japan, and China, as well as the East Asia Summit (EAS) that brought together the top economic officials of the ASEAN countries and eight other nations, including the United States, Russia, and India. "The new government of South Korea will continue to expand and develop its new southern policy, putting cooperation with ASEAN at its core, while strengthening Korea-ASEAN partnership in a forward-looking manner by focusing on three key areas, which are digital technology, supply chains, and climate change," Yeo was quoted as saying in the Korea-ASEAN economic ministers' meeting.
The ministry said the country and ASEAN agreed to upgrade their free trade agreement (FTA) in the meeting and expand the scope of their cooperation to include digital economy, supply chains, and carbon emission reduction. During the EAS, Yeo called for measures to promote open plurilateralism given the challenges facing the free trade system led by the World Trade Organization, according to his office.
Yeo also held bilateral meetings with ministers from nine major economies, including the U.S., the European Union, Japan, Malaysia, and Australia, to discuss collaboration in trade, investment, and other areas, while exchanging views on the U.S. tariff scheme. Yeo discussed the details of the framework trade agreement reached between Seoul and Washington in late July in a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, where the two agreed to work to reach a "mutually beneficial" conclusion, according to the ministry.
Under the framework trade agreement, signed July 30, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration agreed to lower "reciprocal" tariffs on Korea and sectoral tariffs on Korean autos to 15 percent from 25 percent in return for Korea's commitment to investing US$350 billion in the U.S. The countries have yet to settle their differences over how to finance the planned investment and share profits. In meetings with his Malaysian and Singaporean counterparts, Yeo discussed improving FTAs between Korea and the countries.