South Korea antidumping plan out of trade pact

Washington, Dec 28: The United States will not accept South Korea's proposal to alter US anti-dumping laws to clinch a coveted trade agreement, US trade officials said.

''The proposals (on anti-dumping and countervailing duties) Korea is currently advancing will not be included in the final agreement,'' the US Trade Representative's office said in a report to Congress yesterday.

Washington's refusal to bow on dumping, which occurs when a nation sells goods abroad for less than at home, could dim prospects for quickly reaching a pact with South Korea, which would be the United States' biggest trade deal in a decade.

Increased trade with the world's No 11 economy could boost the US economy, but five rounds of talks have bogged down over cars, pharmaceuticals, and even staples like rice.

Seoul has made US anti-dumping laws a priority, arguing they are unfairly slapped on other nations. The talks also have been overshadowed by a feud over US beef exports to South Korea, which have been effectively halted since 2003.

In a recent visit to Seoul, US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez cautioned that tweaking current anti-dumping laws, cherished by some members of Congress, could ruin the deal's chances on Capitol Hill.

USTR's refusal to countenance changes to anti-dumping laws should not surprise Korean negotiators, said Dan Ikenson, a trade expert at the CATO Institute, a Washington think tank.

''The Koreans are going to have to sell this domestically'' without any substantive changes to US laws, Ikenson said.

South Korea is now one of the biggest targets of those laws.

But the United States may be leaving the door open to accommodating some change in anti-dumping policy if they did not require changes to current law, said Gary Hufbauer, a trade expert at the Institute for International Economics.

Reuters