South Korea's government and business community have restarted talks on joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) to expand the country's economic reach. Ryu Jin, chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries, made the case at an international seminar co-hosted with the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy on the 31st. "Companies desperately need stable markets, reliable supply chains and a predictable framework of rules," Ryu said, adding that "the CPTPP, a new trade cooperation system based on openness and rules, is also one of the options." Park Jung-sung, head of the Office of Trade Negotiations, said in congratulatory remarks that "at the ministerial meeting on external economic affairs on the 27th, we launched public deliberation on joining the CPTPP."
The CPTPP is a multilateral free trade agreement signed by major Asia-Pacific economies. Since it took effect in December 2018, 12 countries including Japan, Vietnam, Mexico and Britain have joined in pursuit of shared growth. Last year, total trade between Korea and CPTPP member states reached $341 billion, surpassing trade with China at $273 billion and with the United States at $196 billion. For Korea, it is a vast market it cannot afford to miss.
The government also weighed CPTPP membership in 2020, but the effort fizzled out. Seoul was then at odds with Tokyo over the release of contaminated water from Fukushima and over historical disputes, and farmers and fishermen pushed back strongly. The Democratic Party of Korea, wary of the political cost, was opposed to joining. The longer the delay, the higher the bar for entry will rise. Against that backdrop, it is welcome that the Lee Jae-myung administration, after formally declaring last September that it would resume its review of CPTPP membership, has again moved toward public deliberation.
The government must now resolve differences among ministries, and the ruling party should lend its weight as well. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is pushing actively for accession, but the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has been reluctant, saying a decision "should come only after sufficient communication with the agricultural sector." The Democratic Party's official position is another variable, as ruling party lawmakers on the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee could call for caution. In the end, President Lee Jae-myung must step forward, listen to the business community's proposals, persuade farmers and fishermen, and build a national consensus. On that basis, the answer is to find a compromise that maximizes trade gains while securing safeguards on agricultural products as a negotiating card and preparing measures to offset damage to farming households.
