S. Korea, US Prepare for Summit with Trade Deal Details Unresolved

As South Korea and the United States prepare for a summit of their leaders, topics left unresolved by a recent trade deal provide scope for more disputes between the key allies and trade partners, six former negotiators and experts said.

- 

SEOUL -

US President Donald Trump may use the summit with his South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung to seek more concessions on defense costs and corporate investments, left out of the deal, while non-tariff barriers and currency could prove thorny issues, experts said.

No official summit date has been disclosed, though Mr. Trump last week gave a timeframe of two weeks.

The absence of a written agreement underpinning last week's talks could open the way for disputes, with some differences already emerging in the two sides' accounts of the deal.

Key among these was Aug. 3's denial by a South Korean presidential adviser of US claims that Washington would take 90 percent of the profit from project investments of US$350 billion (S$450 billion) by South Korea, which also agreed to open up its domestic rice market.

"Even a binding deal like the FTA has been efficiently scrapped," warned Mr. Choi Seok-young, a former chief negotiator for the Korea-US free trade deal, signed in 2007. "And this is just a promise."

Last week's pact was scaled down from South Korea's previous plans for a package deal on trade, security and investment envisioned in the run-up to the summit between Mr. Trump and the newly elected Mr. Lee.