Statement by H. E. Amb. SUN Zhenyu of China at the 5th Trade Policy Review of Korea Friday,October 10,2008 Posted: 21:26 BJT(26 GMT)   From:wto    Article type:Original 8th October, 2008 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me start by warmly welcoming the Delegation of Korea headed by H. E. Mr. Ahn Ho-young, Deputy Minister for Trade, and Ambassador Lee Sung-joo. The comprehensive presentation just made by Deputy-Minister Ahn together with the informative Government Report has deepened our understanding of the economic and trade policies of Korea. We thank the Korean Delegation for the great efforts. As usual, the Secretariat has prepared a thorough and high quality report for this review, to which we express our great appreciation. Our special thanks would go to H. E. Amb. Bozkurt Aran for his pertinent and remarkable analytical comments. Mr. Chairman, we do hope that the Korean Trade Policy Review could help calm down a little bit the current world financial turbulence, at least we have a lot to learn from Korean experiences in the Asian financial crisis of 1997. As Deputy-Minister Ahn has pointed out, Korea managed to overcome the financial crisis by sticking to reform and liberalization policies rather than adopting protectionist measures. Mr. Chairman, what has been achieved by Korea over the past years is really laudable. Korea has maintained stable economic growth with an average annual increase of 4.8%. Per capita GDP rose from US$ 14,173 in 2004 to over US$ 20,000 in 2007. At the same time, unemployment rate declined to 3.2%. During most of the period under review, inflation has been kept within the target range of 2.5%-3.5%, although it experienced a short period of relatively high inflation of rate of 5.5% in June 2008 due to recent rises in energy and food prices. Korea has recorded fiscal surpluses in each of the years under review. Current account and external capital account are both in surplus with its foreign exchange reserves going up from US$ 199.1 billion in 2004 to US$ 258.2 billion in May 2008. As we can learn from the Secretariat Report, Korean trade policy regime is generally transparent with trade-related laws and regulations easily accessible. Regulatory reform has progressed with emphasis shifting from reduction of quantities towards improvement of qualities. That being said, there are still some areas which cause Members’ concerns. The tariff structure of Korea remains relatively complex and the agriculture sector keeps enjoying high protection. We believe further improvements could be made in these areas so as to make the trade regime of Korea even more transparent and predictable. China submitted written questions in advance of this review. We thank the Korean Delegation for providing written answers to our questions. We will study the answers carefully and would exchange views with the Korean Delegation further if necessary. Mr. Chairman, relations between China and Korea have constantly been brought to new levels under our joint efforts. High level contacts are frequent which enhances our mutual trust. On 27th May, 2008, during a state visit by President Lee Myung-bak to China, President Lee and President Hu Jintao of China agreed to upgrade the all-round cooperative partnership to strategic cooperative partnership between Korea and China. We believe this will create an even better future for relations between the two countries. Trade and economic cooperation has also made fast development. China has become the largest trading partner, largest export market and largest source of import of Korea. On the other hand, Korea is the sixth largest trading partner, the sixth largest export market and fourth largest source of import of China. From January to August 2008, bilateral trade reached US$ 128.7 billion with an increase of 27.2%. Korean exports and imports were US$ 78.3 billion and US$ 50.3 billion respectively. Korea is also one of China’s largest sources of foreign direct investment. At the multilateral level, Korea has all along played an active and constructive role in the Doha Negotiations. We highly commend the positive contributions made by Amb. Lee and his team in Geneva. China will work closely with Korea and other Members towards concluding the Doha Round as soon as possible. Finally, I wish the Trade Policy Review of Korea a complete success! Thank you for your attention.

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