According to the joint statement made on the same day, the Chinese side will open up 91 percent of its market in terms of number of items (and 85% in import value terms) while the Korean government will open its market to Chinese exporters by 92 percent and 91 percent, respectively, in item and value terms. These are much lower than those agreed with the United States (99%) and the EU (99%).

 

The fact that the opening ratio is low implies that there are many product areas that are not opened up for the sake of domestic industry protection. Early on, the Chinese negotiators set aside super-sensitive areas such as petrochemical, steel, and machinery from the marketing opening talks. Meanwhile, Korean negotiators excluded farming and fishery sectors from the discussion.

 

Until the last minute, both parties haggled over the minutiae. As a results, the Chinese representatives won concessions in the areas of petrochemical products such as paraxylene and excavator. In exchange, the Korean side succeeded in eliciting promises that the Chinese won't demand opening of primary goods markets such as those for rice, red pepper, garlic, apples, pears, yellow corbina, and hairtail.

 

The final market opening ratio for agricultural and fishery goods was 70 percent (40% in value terms). This is so much lower than that agreed with the United States, which was 98 percent and 92 percent in item and value terms. As for the automobile sector, both parties decided to exclude it from the discussion from the beginning for fear of harm to their own domestic industry.

 

Article provided by The Korea Economic Daily