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| Korea’s Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo speaks during a meeting at Korea International Trade Association’s office in Seoul’s Gangnam District in February 2022 about the country’s importers-exporters amid the Russian invasion to Ukraine. Newsis |
By Ko Dong-hwan
Two ministries are at loggerheads over which one will be the country’s key trade authority, as the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration drafts its blueprint. The presidential transition committee said the dispute is inappropriate as the transition committee hasn’t even finished structuring the incoming government under President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol.
The conflict is between the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy which has the authority currently, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which argues it should hold the authority.
Officials from the foreign ministry said diplomacy and trade cannot be separated, referring to the recent emergence of the concept of “national economic security.”
An official said, “With the country’s trade authority on the energy ministry’s side, there are so many things we cannot do. It’s like we are running a race with our hands tied.”
The line between trade and diplomacy has been thinning in recent years, which allowed the energy ministry to wield authority over the country’s trade and perform diplomacy-related activities. The foreign ministry said this trend has deprived it of its core diplomatic tools.
The energy ministry argued that a ministry that knows better industrial policies must hold the authority over trade. But the foreign ministry refuted that argument, saying the energy ministry, which mainly handles manufacturing, cannot balance the diverse interests of different ministries delicately.
“When the country comes to free trade discussions with other countries, it involves the interests of not just the manufacturing sector but also the agriculture, service and the fisheries industries as well,” a foreign ministry official said. “Can the energy ministry maintain meticulous balancing acts for all those sectors? I doubt it.”
The foreign ministry official added that the ministry had the trade authority during previous administrations even before the 1998-2003 Kim Dae-jung administration. The ministry had maintained trade authority until the time of the 2008-13 Lee Myung-bak administration.
The transition committee said on March 30 that it needed more time to finalize which ministry will be given the trade authority. “We have just begun brainstorming about the new government’s organization charts,” the committee’s spokesperson Won Il-hee said. “Nothing has been finalized yet.”
The daily Hankook Economy aroused the ire of the foreign ministry by reporting on March 29 that a senior-level official from the U.S. government had informed the Korean government that Washington didn’t like the idea of the incoming government transferring the trade authority to the foreign ministry. The foreign ministry condemned the energy ministry for “trying to win a domestic fight with a foreign ally at its back.”
The transition committee plans to release a draft of the new government’s blueprint in early May.
Transition team warns of inter-ministry fight over trade authority
Source: Updates News Philippines
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