Korea, U.S. to revise FTA with currency side deal

A revised free trade agreement between Korea and the United States will include a side deal prohibiting both countries from deliberately devaluing their currencies for trade advantages, White House officials said Wednesday.

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the U.S. Treasury Department are currently in talks for an agreement to prevent “competitive currency devaluation,” they said.

They added the proposed accord would require Korea to increase the transparency of its foreign exchange actions but would include no enforcement mechanism.

The Treasury Department is set to release its semiannual currency report next month. Last October, Washington kept the country on the “monitoring list” but did not designate it as a currency manipulator.

Seoul officials said recently that the government is considering disclosing details of its interventions in the foreign exchange market.

Seoul’s Finance Ministry said that the revised free trade pact would not include the deal for currency-related issues. “We are working on details [with our U.S. counterparts] and reviewing related things before the release of the United States’ April currency report, and the discussion is a totally different one,” the ministry said.

Yonhap