Determined Position
The South Korean government decided to show an active response to China’s trade retaliation following its decision to accept the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in the Korean Peninsula.
The South Korean government held a task force meeting for the issue in the morning of January 20 and discussed how to deal with trade issues regarding China. The meeting was hosted by Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance Choi Sang-mok.
Those who attended the meeting agreed on organizing subcommittees by industrial sector in the task force of the government for dealing with the issues in order to better respond to China’s trade retaliation. The subcommittees’ roles are to include real-time monitoring of situations and issues and communication with industries. At the same time, South Korean trade and investment agencies located in China, such as the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, the Korea International Trade Association and the Korea Chamber of Commerce in China, are to have regular meetings with the South Korean Embassy in China for the same purposes.
The South Korean government is also planning to raise questions if necessary via bilateral channels such as the FTA Implementation Committee, high-level councils and working-level talks as well as multilateral channels like the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary Committee and the WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade. In the meantime, the government is going to proceed with people-to-people exchange programs, industrial cooperation complex development and regional economic cooperation with China this year, the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and China.