Meeting with Jamieson Greer, USTR Representative, Scheduled for the Afternoon of the 15th
Joint Discussions with Minister Ahn Deokgeun Planned for Tomorrow
On May 15, Jung Ingyo, Deputy Minister for Trade Negotiations at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, will hold a one-on-one meeting with Jamieson Greer, representative of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
At a press briefing held prior to the opening of the APEC Trade Ministers’ Meeting on the same day, Deputy Minister Jung stated, "A bilateral meeting with Representative Greer is scheduled for today, and tomorrow I plan to hold further discussions together with Minister Ahn Deokgeun of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy." He added, "Talks with Greer will proceed in an orderly manner, starting with preliminary working-level coordination, followed by a meeting at the deputy minister level, and then ministerial-level negotiations."
Deputy Minister Jung said, "Since we are the host country, we cannot simply take up Representative Greer's time without limits, so we intend to approach this in a planned manner." He continued, "After today's (May 15) afternoon meeting and tomorrow's meeting between Minister Ahn and Representative Greer, there will be more concrete updates." He added, "This meeting will serve as an important foundation for progress on Korea-U.S. trade issues."
Regarding his earlier meeting that morning with Li Chenggang, Vice Minister of Commerce of China, Deputy Minister Jung explained, "The Chinese side reaffirmed its usual stance on maintaining the multilateral trading system and stabilizing the global supply chain, and emphasized that this year's event must proceed smoothly in order to ensure the success of next year's APEC summit in China." He added, "We also conveyed our hope that the situation will improve during the 90-day Geneva tariff suspension period between the U.S. and China."
Regarding U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant's remarks that Korea had made a "good proposal," Jung said, "It seems the comments were expressed somewhat differently from what I know," and added, "It appears the content was amplified in the process of answering reporters' questions." On the U.S. claim that exchange rates were excluded from the agenda in tariff negotiations among various countries, he stated, "That falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and is outside my area."
Regarding the possibility that the United States may request Korea's participation in sanctions against China, Deputy Minister Jung said, "It is clear that the United States regards economic security as a key agenda item in trade negotiations and consultations," but also stated, "However, in today's discussions with China, economic security issues were not mentioned at all."
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