It's been a busy month for South Korea's international trade representatives!
While on a visit to the Washington, DC, Korean President Lee Myung-bak and senior officials worked out some plans with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, ultimately signing a Memorandum of Understanding regarding:
High-Tech Trade. Deepening the collaborative high-technology relationship, including facilitating secure bilateral high-tech trade and investment by establishing a dialogue that will, among other things:
- Share information and best practices on existing export control laws, regulations and policies related to high-tech trade;
- Address issues such as the content and scope of control lists, classification of products, processing of license applications and other authorizations, preventive enforcement techniques and investigations of potential violations of export control rules; and
- Cooperate in offering assistance to countries in need of export control support, especially with regards to high-tech trade.
The MOA also stipulates objectives to promote trade and investment and adopt best practices in industrial technologies and standards.
History Lesson: This agreement was initially negotiated back in April 2007 but has not been approved by either Congress or the National Assembly of South Korea. The office of the US Trade Representative has more info but nhas not yet updated the site with this MOU.
This could potentially be the biggest FTA deal since NAFTA and will have huge savings opportunities for companies to save on their duties by properly managing their trade agreements.
