South Korea this week pushed back against the United States’ demand to renegotiate the free trade agreement (FTA) between the close allies. 

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the five-year-old Korea-U.S. (KORUS) FTA as a horrible deal that created a $27 billion U.S. trade deficit with South Korea last year, and has said his administration would either renegotiate or terminate it.

Agree to disagree

At Washington’s urging, an initial special session was held on Tuesday by video conference between South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong and his American counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer, to negotiate amendments to the trade pact.

Afterwards the South Korea trade minister said the two sides disagreed on the need to amend the trade deal.

“We have found that the two sides have different views on the effects of the U.S. and South Korea Free Trade Agreement, the reason behind the trade deficit, and necessity for an amendment to the U.S. and South Korea FTA,” said Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong.

South Korean officials maintain the bilateral trade deficit is not the result of the FTA, but of the underperforming South Korean economy, where demand for imports have declined, contrasted with the more robust U.S. economy.

“For the last 10 years, South Korea’s market economy was not good, so the U.S. did not get opportunities to sell its products (to South Korea). If South Korea’s economy gets better and the U.S. economy gets worse, we may face the opposite situation,” said Chung Sye-kyun, the speaker of the South Korean National Assembly on Thursday at an event organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

KORUS supporters in Seoul also argue the FTA benefits the U.S. economy and American workers. Last year, Korean companies like the electronics giant Samsung and the automaker Hyundai, employed 45,000 Americans and contributed $138 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

‘Korea unique standards’

The USTR released a statement Wednesday saying it will continue bilateral talks to amend or modify the agreement and specifically identified the “burdensome regulations which often exclude U.S. firms or artificially set prices for American intellectual property” as a major issue of contention.

The auto industry accounts for nearly 80 percent of the bilateral trade deficit, as American car sales in South Korea have been slow, while Korean automobile sales in the United States have soared. The American business community has long blamed the deficit in part on non-tariff related “Korea unique standards,” often linked to environmental regulations or certification procedures that they say are imposed to protect the domestic market. Foreign companies are then forced to spend an inordinate amount of time and money to deal with these regulations that are often introduced without notice or clear explanations.

South Korean authorities have downplayed charges of unfair trade practices, saying most complaints have been resolved through negotiations without the need for amending the FTA.

The South Korean Trade Minister said while this week’s meeting did not reach any agreement on how to proceed, neither side talked about terminating the FTA. 

The Korea Times newspaper in Seoul on Friday published an editorial advising the South Korean government that “a good offense is the best defense” in any upcoming trade negotiations. It recommended Seoul press Washington to loosen its intellectual property rights protections and rules regarding disputes between investors and the state, and to threaten to reduce agriculture and energy imports if the situation becomes overly contentious.

The potential rift over trade comes at a time when Washington and Seoul have been emphasizing their close military alliance and joint support for increasing sanctions on North Korea to pressure the Kim Jong Un government to return to international denuclearization talks.

This week some 17,500 American and 50,000 South Koreans troops are participating in joint strategic military exercises that deal with how to respond to possible North Korean attack scenarios.

Youmi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report
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The U.S. Navy says divers have recovered a second body from the USS John S. McCain, the naval ship that collided with a merchant vessel earlier this week.

In a statement released Friday, the Navy identified the sailor as 26-year old Dustin Louis Doyon, from Connecticut. Divers found the body of 22-year old Kenneth Aaron Smith of New Jersey on Thursday.

Eight sailors remain missing following Monday’s collision with the Liberian-flagged tanker Alnic MC in waters near Malaysia and Singapore.

The Navy said more divers and equipment arrived overnight to continue search and recovery operations inside flooded compartments of the ship. Search and rescue efforts were suspended Thursday to focus on the recovery operations.

“After more than 80 hours of multi-national search efforts, the U.S. Navy suspended search and rescue efforts for missing USS John S. McCain sailors in an approximately 2,100-square mile area east of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore,” the U.S. Seventh Fleet said on its website.

The pre-dawn collision was the fourth major accident for the U.S. Pacific Fleet this year and has prompted a review of its operations.

On Wednesday, Seventh Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin was removed from his post, citing “loss of confidence in his ability to command.”

In a June collision involving a U.S. destroyer, seven sailors from the USS Fitzgerald died when their ship hit a container ship in waters off Japan.The Navy relieved the ship’s captain of his command, and further punitive actions are expected following an inquiry that found poor seamanship and flaws in keeping watch contributed to the collision.

The USS McCain is named for the father and grandfather of U.S. Senator John McCain, both of them four-star Navy admirals.The senator also was a naval officer, an aviator who spent six years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.

 
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Harvey continued to intensify as it steered for the Texas coast, with the forecasters saying it had strengthened to a Category 2 storm.

The hurricane with the potential for up to 3 feet of rain, 125 mph winds and 12-foot storm surges could be the fiercest such storm to hit the United States in almost a dozen years. Forecasters labeled Harvey a “life-threatening storm” that posed a “grave risk” as millions of people braced for a prolonged battering that could swamp dozens of counties more than 100 miles inland.

Landfall was predicted for late Friday or early Saturday between Port O’Connor and Matagorda Bay, a 30-mile (48-kilometer) stretch of coastline about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northeast of Corpus Christi.

Harvey grew quickly Thursday from a tropical depression into a Category 1 hurricane. Early Friday, the National Hurricane Center reported it had become a Category 2. Fueled by warm Gulf of Mexico waters, it was projected to become a major Category 3 hurricane.

The last storm of that category to hit the U.S. was Hurricane Wilma in October 2005 in Florida.

Superstorm Sandy, which pummeled New York and New Jersey in 2012, never had the high winds and had lost tropical status by the time it struck. But it was devastating without formally being called a major hurricane.

“We’re forecasting continuing intensification right up until landfall,” National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.

All seven Texas counties on the coast from Corpus Christi to the western end of Galveston Island have ordered mandatory evacuations of tens of thousands of residents from all low-lying areas. In four of those counties, officials ordered their entire county evacuated and warned those who stayed behind that no one could be guaranteed rescue.

Voluntary evacuations have been urged for Corpus Christi itself and for the Bolivar Peninsula, a sand spit near Galveston where many homes were washed away by the storm surge of Hurricane Ike in 2008.

Texas officials expressed concern that not as many people are evacuating compared with previous storms.

“A lot of people are taking this storm for granted thinking it may not pose much of a danger to them,” Gov. Greg Abbott told Houston television station KPRC. “Please heed warnings and evacuate as soon as possible.”

Abbott has activated about 700 members of the state National Guard ahead of Hurricane Harvey making landfall.

As of late Thursday afternoon, Harvey was about 305 miles (490 kilometers) southeast of Corpus Christi, moving to the north-northwest at about 10 mph (17 kph). Sustained winds were clocked at 85 mph.

Harvey’s effect would be broad. The hurricane center said storm surges as much as 3 feet could be expected as far north as Morgan City, Louisiana, some 400 miles away from the anticipated landfall.

And once it comes ashore, the storm is expected to stall, dumping copious amounts of rain for days in areas like flood-prone Houston, the nation’s fourth most-populous city, and San Antonio.

State transportation officials were considering when to turn all evacuation routes from coastal areas into one-way traffic arteries headed inland. John Barton, a former deputy executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, predicted state officials will do this before the storm hits, but said timing and determining where to use it are the key factors. Storms change paths and if contraflow starts too early, supplies such as extra gasoline needed to support impacted areas can’t get in, he said.

This would be the first hurricane for Bethany Martinez, who is pregnant and has two boys, 5 and 6, who were with grandparents in Austin. Asked about her demeanor, Martinez replied: “Afraid.”

She’s a front desk clerk at a Holiday Inn Express at Port Aransas. “We are closing down,” Martinez said of the 74-room hotel a couple of blocks from the Gulf of Mexico. It was about two-thirds full before all guests were cleared out.

Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi was airlifting at least 10 critically ill, mostly premature infants from its neonatal intensive care unit to Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth. They were expected to arrive by early Friday. Cook transport director Debbie Boudreaux said the infants were being moved inland for fear that power outages might disable their ventilators.

Harvey would be the first significant hurricane to hit Texas since Ike in September 2008 brought winds of 110 mph (177 kph) to the Galveston and Houston areas and inflicted $22 billion in damage. It would be the first big storm along the middle Texas coast since Hurricane Claudette in 2003 caused $180 million in damage.

It’s taking aim at the same vicinity as Hurricane Carla, the largest Texas hurricane on record. Carla came ashore in 1961 with wind gusts estimated at 175 mph and inflicted more than $300 million in damage. The storm killed 34 people and forced about 250,000 people to evacuate.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump was “briefed and will continue to be updated as the storm progresses.”

In Houston, one of the nation’s most flood-prone cities, Bill Pennington prepared his one-story home for what he expected would be its third invasion of floodwaters in as many years and the fifth since 1983.

“We know how to handle it. We’ll handle it again,” Pennington said he told his nervous 9-year-old son.

Dozens were in lines Thursday at a Corpus Christi Sam’s Club, at home improvement stores and supermarkets. Alex Garcia bought bottled water, bread and other basics in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land after dropping his daughter off at college. He said grocery items were likely more available in Houston than back home in Corpus Christi, where Garcia, a beer distributor salesman, said stores were “crazy.”

“We’ll be selling lots of beer,” he laughed.

In Galveston, where a 1900 hurricane went down as the worst in U.S. history, City Manager Brian Maxwell said he was anticipating street flooding and higher-than-normal tides.

“Obviously being on an island, everybody around here is kind of used to it.”
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An angry employee shot one person Thursday and was holding “a couple” of others hostage at a crowded restaurant during lunchtime in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, authorities said.

Hostage negotiators were trying to talk to the man inside Virginia’s, Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said at a news conference outside the restaurant, located on usually crowded King Street, a line of shops and nice dining that caters to both tourists and residents in South Carolina’s largest and most historic city.

“This is not an act of terrorism. This is not a hate crime. It is a disgruntled employee,” Tecklenburg said.

Police spokesman Charles Francis said at a news conference that the employee was holding a “couple” of hostages. He did not respond to follow-up telephone calls seeking a more specific number and he did not give any details on the condition of the shooting victim.

The shooting was reported shortly after noon Thursday.

Peter Siegert, 73, and his son Peter Siegert IV, 45, were quoted by The Post and Courier of Charleston as saying that just after several waitresses and kitchen workers walked out the door without saying a word, a man in an apron with a gun came out of the kitchen and locked the front door.

He said, “‘I am the new king of Charleston'” the Siegerts said.

The man told diners to get on the floor and move to the back of the restaurant. The Siegerts said they escaped out a back door and didn’t know how many people were left behind.

Charleston Police sent SWAT teams and a bomb disposal unit to the area. Authorities instructed people inside to stay inside and those outside to leave the area.

The site is a few blocks away from Emanuel AME church, where nine black members of a church were killed by a white man during a June 2015 Bible study. Dylann Roof was sentenced to death in the case.
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Experts at credit rating agencies are watching Washington’s political squabbling over budgets and spending closely, and they might make another cut in the U.S. credit rating if the Republican-controlled White House, Senate and House cannot reach an agreement.

President Donald Trump has promised to build a massive wall along the southern U.S. border in a bid to stop illegal immigration. Trump has said he will press Congress hard to fund the controversial measure, even if it stalls action on other budget issues and forces the government to shut down.

Some of Trump’s fellow Republicans who ran on promises to limit or cut government spending are reluctant to fund the measure, and most rival Democrats oppose the wall.

U.S. law provides for a “debt ceiling,” meaning the Treasury cannot borrow more money unless Congress agrees to raise the limit. That limit was reached months ago, and the federal government will apparently run out of cash by the end of September or early October if nothing changes.

The political situation is made more complex by the fast-approaching end of the budget year and the need for Congress to agree on next year’s spending priorities.

Congress and presidents have bickered over budgets in the past, and in 2011 a debt ceiling impasse prompted the Standard & Poor’s agency to make the first downgrade of the U.S. credit rating.

The Fitch agency Wednesday said failure to raise the debt ceiling in a timely manner would prompt a review of the nation’s credit rating. Fitch currently gives the United States its top rating.

Moody’s experts Thursday wrote that they expected Washington politicians to work out their differences, but that failure to reach an agreement could prompt the government to shut down, disrupting the economy more and more if the impasse drags on.

Moody’s noted that a previous government shutdown prompted lenders to demand higher interest rates, raising the cost of government by about $1.3 billion in just one year.

Moody’s and other experts have urged Congress to remove the debt ceiling because it does not restrain spending but does add “to the noise” around the budget process.
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Russian and U.S. officials traded accusations on Thursday over their respective policies in Afghanistan, pointing fingers of blame at each other.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed regret that the main focus of U.S. President Donald Trump’s new Afghanistan strategy is “regulation by methods of force.”

“We are certain this is a futile course,” Lavrov said.

Asked for a response by VOA, a senior U.S. administration official said what Trump put forward Monday in a nationally televised address “is not a military-only strategy. There’s a strong diplomatic, political element, even economic element to the strategy. So, it’s just factually incorrect to say that this is just an overly militaristic strategy.”

The Russians, the U.S. official added, “have been spreading some very unhelpful propaganda with respect to the U.S. role in Afghanistan.”

‘Fictitious’

Russia is also trying to claim the United States is supporting the so-called Islamic State (IS) group in Afghanistan, “which is fictitious,” the official added.

“They are seeking to undermine our reputation in the region and sew false information about U.S. objectives,” the official said. “It doesn’t surprise me because I think the Russians see themselves as competitors for influence in the region.”

U.S. officials say Moscow’s concern about IS is driving them to consider support to the Taliban.

“To the extent Russia is supplying arms to the Taliban, that is a violation, obviously, of international norms,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday.

“It’s not the first time we are accused of supporting and even arming the Taliban,” Lavrov told reporters on Thursday. “Not one fact has been presented” to support this.”

Trump this week announced 4,000 new troops for deployment to Afghanistan, backtracking from his earlier promise to end America’s longest war, though other specifics of the plan remain unclear.

Message to Taliban

Earlier Thursday in Kabul, U.S. Army General John Nicholson, the commander of the NATO mission and U.S. forces in the country, made a direct appeal to the Taliban.

“I say you have a simple choice: Stop fighting against your countrymen. Stop killing innocent civilians. Stop bringing hardship and misery to the Afghan people,” Nicholson said. “Lay down your arms and join Afghan society. Help build a better future for this country and your own children.”

With the announcement of Trump’s policy, “the Taliban cannot win on the battlefield. It is time for them to join the peace process,” added the general, who called the Taliban “a criminal organization, more interested in the profits they find in drugs, kidnapping, and murder for hire than offering anything better to the Afghan people.”

Nicholson also said Islamic State “is being crushed in Nangarhar (a province in the eastern part of the country) and we will pursue them, and annihilate them wherever they go.”

The conflict in Afghanistan, with a factionalized unity government riddled with systemic corruption, has dragged on for 16 years – since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks on the United States.
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