The New York Korean-American business community welcomes the bilateral free trade agreement

The New York Korean-American business community welcomes the bilateral free trade agreement between Korea and the United States. The businessmen, who looked forward with great anticipation to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), greeted the news of the negotiations, on December 3, with enthusiasm and the hope that both the Korean Parliament and the American Congress will pass the bill soon.

Local Korean businessmen believe that this agreement will help both countries to increase their economic vitality; they expect that it will also help the cooperation on security in both countries, especially in light of the recent provocative actions of North Korea, which have increased tensions in East Asia.

Mr. Seung-Ki Min, the chairman of N.Y. Korean-American Businessmen Association, the largest trade and wholesale Korean-American business group in the United States, predicts that increased numbers of high quality Korean goods will come to America, selling as tax-free articles at good competitive prices. Currently, the market is largely dominated by cheap Chinese goods, which importers bring in at low prices; the same items, they claim, can usually be found in Korea of better quality.

Mr. Jin-hyong Soh, the president of Global Golden Trade Inc. and the former chairman of World OKTA (Overseas Korean Trade Association) said, “I believe that the agreement will contribute to restoring the American economy in this long recession. We should push to have Congress pass this quickly.”

Mr. Soh also advised Korean-American chamber members and businessmen to look beyond national interests and also focus on the impact of FTA at the individual level. “The FTA can create 70,000 jobs here in America,” stated Soh, and considered it reason enough for the group to champion the bill this year.

Mr. Woo-chon Kwak, chairman of N.Y. Korean-American Sewing Business
Association, agreed, “We had hoped to see the FTA signed when we discussed it at the G20; we’re a little late now, but this is still great news. If we can achieve tax-exempt status for Korean textile imports, this will really help our factories.”

Other importers-businessmen in the agriculture and food industries also welcomed news of the FTA in unison. Experts in these fields say that “with shorter customs formalities and a reduction of tariffs, prices of Korean items will sink but become more competitive. Then we won’t have to buy Chinese items because of their cheap prices.”

By Won-young Park, The Korea Times, 4 December 2010. Translated from Korean by Sun-Yong Reinish.