Washington DC
– The United
States and Korea have simultaneously released
the full draft text of the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement
(“KORUS
FTA”). Negotiations on the agreement were completed on
April 1. U.S.
Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab issued the
following
statement:
“As we have underscored since we completed negotiations on
the
Agreement, the KORUS FTA is a strong, comprehensive deal that will bring
concrete benefits to U.S.
manufacturers, services providers,
farmers, ranchers, and workers, as well as
the people of
Korea. The text lays out the
details of this historic Agreement between two large countries with
complex,
modern economies,” said Ambassador Schwab. “The
agreement will advance
U.S. efforts to deepen and strengthen
its trade and investment ties in a strategically significant part of
the world.”
The Agreement contains 24 chapters, which provide for
significant
reductions in tariffs on industrial and agriculture products, and
include state-of-the-art commitments in competition policy, e-
commerce,
transparency, pharmaceuticals/medical devices, intellectual
property rights
(IPR), investment, and services. The Agreement
also includes an
unprecedented and strong package of automotive
provisions, which will level the
playing field in this important
sector. The automotive provisions are
found throughout the text,
including in the chapters on market access and
national treatment for
goods, technical barriers to trade, and dispute
settlement.
This draft text does not yet include provisions that
reflect the
recently-concluded agreement between Congress and the Administration
on
labor rights, environmental safeguards and other issues that have created a
new, bipartisan path forward on trade. The Administration
and
Congress are still in the process of converting this agreement into
formal
text. When that process is complete, the
United States looks forward
to working together
with Korea to reflect that
agreement.
The draft KORUS FTA text is available on the USTR website
at
http://www.ustr.gov/. As is the case with all FTAs, the draft text is
subject to legal review for accuracy, clarity, and consistency.
The following fact sheets are also
available:
Sumary of the agreement
Economic and Strategic Benefits
Summary of auto provisions
Summary of agricultural provisions
Statements of Support for KORUS FTA
