News Story: Seoul dismisses idea of petitioning WTO over China's THAAD retaliation

SEOUL, Sept. 14 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's presidential office Thursday dismissed the idea of petitioning the World Trade Organization (WTO) over China's economic retaliation for the deployment of a U.S. missile defense battery here, saying now is the time for joint efforts to rein in an increasingly provocative North Korea.

"We hope to address difficult issues between South Korea and China by further strengthening strategic communication and cooperation," presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun told reporters.

"Now is a very important juncture for maintaining cooperation with China due to North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations," he added.

Read the full story at YonhapNews

Think Tank: A contested Asia - What comes after US strategic predominance? (Part 2)

Peter Varghese

PacificSentinel: Part 1 can be found HERE

The concept of a balance of power has lost its appeal to many scholars and practitioners of international relations. But in my view it still matters. I take comfort that the late Lee Kwan Yew, a shrewd observer of our strategic environment, understood both the importance of a balance in Asia and the need to view it as more than just a military balance. Lee observed: ‘In the old concept, balance of power meant largely military power. In today’s terms, it is a combination of economic and military, and I think the economic outweighs the military.’

Already such a de facto balance is in the making through the shared desire of the US, India, Japan and others to balance China. Each has its own geopolitical and historical reasons, of which the non-democratic character of China is by no means the primary driver. This is not a classic balance-of-power grouping. It’s an organic, not an orchestrated arrangement.

Where Korea eventually lines up is an open question. The ROK is an ally of the US. But what would be the disposition of a united Korea? Would it lean towards China or the US? Or, more likely, would it seek an independent path with or without nuclear weapons? A united Korea is likely to be a democracy, which suggests it will at least lean towards balancing China. But no one knows which options will eventuate, which is one reason China doesn’t want to push the North Korean regime to the point of collapse.

News Report: Beijing Shares Seoul's Position on Peaceful Settlement of Nuclear Crisis

Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman Hua Chunying stated that Beijing supports South Korea’s position on solving the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula through a peaceful dialogue.

BEIJING (Sputnik) — China supports South Korea’s position on solving the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula by peaceful, diplomatic means and opposes any imprudent actions, including the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Thursday.

"We notice that South Korea often says it is necessary to resolve the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula through a peaceful dialogue," Hua said at the press briefing, adding that China supports such an approach.

However, Beijing’s opposing stance on the deployment of a US THAAD system in South Korea has not changed, the spokeswoman noted.

News Story: U.S. unilateral measures to shaken multilateral trade framework - UN official

GENEVA, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. unilateral punishing trade measures, based on outdated national laws, against its trade partners are not in line with the international laws and could shaken the foundation of an established multilateral trade framework, a UN trade official warned on Tuesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday directed the U.S. trade representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer to examine China's intellectual property practices, despite worries about potential harms to China-U.S. trade ties.

The USTR will determine "whether to investigate any of China's laws, policies, practices, or actions" that "may be harming American intellectual property rights, innovation or technology development" under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, according to a memorandum released by the White House.

Section 301, once heavily used in the 1980s and the early 1990s, allows the U.S. president to unilaterally impose tariffs or other trade restrictions against foreign countries, but the U.S. has rarely used the trade tool since the WTO came into being in 1995.

Liang Guoyong, Economic Affairs Officer at the Investment and Enterprise Division of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said such an examination under Section 301 could serve as a tool for the U.S. to strike a bargain with China, and any tariffs or restricting trade measures thereof imposed unilaterally by the U.S. could shaken the foundation of a multilateral trade framework.

The repercussions would be a high risk of a trade war which will benefit neither of the two countries, he added.

Read the full story at Xinhua

Related Story: China expresses "grave concerns" about new U.S. memorandum

News Story: Criticism mounts in S. Korea over China's refusal to end economic retaliations

By Kim Kwang-tae

SEOUL, July 7 (Yonhap) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has apparently rejected South Korea's long-standing calls to end economic retaliations, sparking a torrent of criticism from the local business community.

China -- Seoul's largest trading partner -- has imposed restrictions on South Korean imports and banned the sale of group tour packages to the Asian neighbor. Such actions are widely seen as apparent economic retaliations over the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system in South Korea.

Seoul and Washington said the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is only meant to counter North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.

But China has repeatedly pressed South Korea to withdraw the THAAD missiles out of concern that the deployment could hurt Beijing's security interests.

On Thursday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in met with Xi in Berlin and asked him to end China's "various constraints," in a thinly veiled reference to China's economic retaliations against South Korea's business interests.

The two leaders are in Germany for the Group of 20 summit, the world's premier forum that handles economic, diplomatic and other hot-button issues.

Still, Xi told Moon that South Korea should seriously consider China's legitimate concern and handle the relevant issue in a way that makes sense to remove obstacles for the improvement and development of the bilateral relations.

Read the full story at YonhapNews

News Report: India, Japan to Launch Their Rival to China's OBOR

With China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative getting all the global attention in Beijing, India and Japan plan a soft launch of their Asia-Africa connectivity project later this month. Experts, however, pointed out that OBOR can't be ignored despite Indian and Japanese reluctance to join it.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — Dubbed as a democratic alternative to OBOR, the Partnership for Quality Infrastructure will have India and Japan work together on a maritime-only project to bring the Indian Ocean Region and the African continent closer through an Asia-Africa connectivity project, stretching from Japan to Africa via the Indian Ocean.

India has been forthright in its opposition to the OBOR, saying it "lacks the core features of a connectivity project that should be based on common understanding and collective interest".

India's discomfiture with OBOR, in particular, stems from the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which passes through Pakistan-administered Kashmir, a territory which New Delhi claims and shows in its map as its own. New Delhi maintains the CPEC violates India's sovereignty.

News Story: Concerns Mount Over Possible Border Closures

By Zabiullah Jhanmal

Officials from the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) on Sunday said they are worried that once again border crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistan will be closed to traders amid rising tension among border guards on both sides of the Durand Line.

They said government should take immediate action to prevent any possible border closure.

“Border closure is not in favor of either country and the Afghan government needs to take action to prevent any such scenario,” said Tawfiq Davari, ACCI’s deputy head.

However, according to Article 24 of the business and transit agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistan, neither country has the right to close trade routes. Article 5 of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Tariffs and Traders also states that all members of the organization have an obligation to keep its trade routes open to other members of the organization. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan are members of the WTO.

ACCI officials also said according to the Geneva Water Convention and the United Nations, Afghanistan has the right to prevent the closure of its borders with Pakistan.

Read the full story at TOLOnews

News Story: Buy America, Again. Sigh

By COLIN CLARK

WASHINGTON: America cannot apply Buy America provisions on a widescale basis and buy the best weapons, no matter how much President Trump and his team may feel otherwise. It’s a simple as that.

All the competitors for the Air Force’s next-generation trainer, the T-X, include enormous amounts of foreign content, some including the aircraft. The biggest weapon system built for the US military, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, includes enormous amounts of foreign content. The F-35’s complex wiring bundles are done by a Dutch company. An Australian company builds vertical tailpieces. BAE, a British and American company, builds major portions of the plane. Check out the graphic below by BAE Systems to see what they do. There’s even a Memorandum of Understanding between Australia, Denmark, Italy, Holland, Norway, Turkey, the UK and the U.S.A about the production, sustainment, and follow-on development of the F-35 that guarantees certain rights to the program’s original partner countries.

As those examples make clear, the world is really too interconnected to put America First in defense trade without harming American interests. American defense supply chains are inextricably tied to Europe, Australia, Japan and South Korea. I don’t mention Canada because it is legally part of the US defense industrial base and is not subject to regulation. It was missed by many, but the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act added Australia and Britain to the US industrial base, so their companies also would not be subject to whatever the review finds. One source familiar with the issue says Britain and Australia were added to fend off the worst effects of a Buy America crackdown that was already being discussed.

Read the full story at Breaking Defense

News Report: 'Enemy Again': China's No-Go on THAAD Makes South Koreans See Red

The current pique between Beijing and Seoul over the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system in South Korea has put China ahead of Japan on the list of countries South Koreans like least.

South Koreans’ dislike of Japan goes back to the country’s colonial past and the atrocities the Japanese Imperial Army committed there during WWII, historian Andrei Karneyev said in an interview with Sputnik.

Korean women were forced to the war front to serve the Imperial Japanese Army as sexual slaves, called “comfort women,” and this soured relations between the two countries for many decades.

It wasn’t until 2015 that Japan finally acknowledged its “profound responsibility” for the sexual exploitation of Korean women during the Second World War and offered financial compensations to the victims.

“Still, painful memories of the colonial past lingered on and it is all the more surprising that, as a result of the spat with Beijing over the proposed deployment of US missiles in South Korea, South Koreans now see China as even a less friendly country than Japan,” Andrei Karneyev said.

News Story: China follows WTO rules

BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- China abides by World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and will continue to do so, a commerce official said Thursday.

Sun Jiwen, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), made the remarks at a press briefing in response to a question about a recent ROK complaint to the WTO over the situation facing ROK companies in China.

Read the full story at Xinhua

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Story Quote: "China always abides by WTO rules"

PacificSentinel: Yes, to the fullest letter of the law, while the spirit of the law is tossed in the bin.

News Report: Beijing's Anti-THAAD Moves Sour China Views in South Korea

Brian Padden

SEOUL — A new public opinion poll shows growing anti-China sentiment in South Korea over reports of economic retaliation by Beijing against the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system.

The United States military has already begun to deploy the advanced U.S. anti-ballistic missile system in South Korea over the objections of China, and it is expected to be fully operational within the next month. Seoul and Washington argue THAAD is needed to defend against North Korea’s increasing nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.

Beijing says it is a provocative regional military escalation and is worried the systems powerful radar could be used against them and other countries as well. Beijing is reportedly retaliating against the THAAD deployment by restricting the operations of some South Korean companies inside China, and putting limits on some imports and the number of Chinese tourists to South Korea.

South Korea this week complained to the World Trade Organization that China, its largest trading partner, is violating trade agreements over THAAD. Beijing has not acknowledged imposing any new economic restrictions.

News Story: Pakistan’s PM Orders Immediate Re-Opening Of Torkham

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday ordered the immediate re-opening of Torkham, Spin Boldak and other gates that were closed in the aftermath of recent “terrorist” attacks in the country, Pakistani media reported.

Sharif said in a statement that the border was being re-opened as “a goodwill gesture.”

He said he hoped the Afghan government would address the grievances cited for the closure of border.

The Torkham and Spin Boldak gates were closed on February 16 after a suicide attack at Lal Shehbaz Qalandar shrine that killed 75 people and injured hundreds others.

Pakistan authorities claimed the attack on the shrine was planned in Afghanistan.

Following the attack, Pakistan launched missile attacks on the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan, leaving hundreds of families homeless.

Read the full story at TOLOnews

News Story: New WTO agreement pushes back against protectionism - New Zealand Trade Minister

WELLINGTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- A new World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement to make trade easier is a win for liberalization in the face of rising protectionism, New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay said Thursday.

McClay issued a statement welcoming the entry into force of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), saying it was a big win for New Zealand exporters.

"This is a win for trade liberalization, and the WTO, in the face of growing concerns around protectionism," McClay said.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Report: Seoul Braces for China's Economic Response to US Missile System in S Korea

Seoul is seriously concerned that China may react negatively to the upcoming deployment of elements of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea, according to Sputnik Korea.

Commenting on the forthcoming deployment of elements of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea, experts told Sputnik Korea that Seoul is already alarmed about China's retaliation against the move.

In this context, Lee Wanghwi from Ajou University mentioned China's so-called Red Supply Chain, a new economic policy which he said poses a serious threat to South Korea, which currently delivers many components, semi-finished and intermediate products to China.

"As soon as the question of Seoul's possible trade war with Beijing after the THAAD deployment arises, suggestions emerge to reduce the share of China, which now amounts to 25% of South Korea's foreign trade."

"Quickly reducing the share of trade with China is very difficult, given that many companies are involved in the [mutual] supply chain," Wanghwi said.

News Report: Russia, China Boost Strategic Ties Instead of 'Creating Confrontational Groups'

Russia and China should support each other in the current uncertainty of international relations, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi said during a meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Sputnik China spoke to international relations expert Feng Yujun in an interview about the importance of this cooperation.

The expert from the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University Feng Yujun said that in the context of internal problems in a number of developing countries, turbulence in regional security, and changes in international rules and regulations the situation in the world today is the most difficult since the Cold War.

“Russia and China have a comprehensive strategic partnership, so it is important for them to strengthen cooperation in all fields and areas. First of all, it is important to reveal the inner potential of such bilateral cooperation, in order to maintain stability inside the countries, as well as continuously develop economic cooperation, overcoming existing difficulties in the economic sphere,” Yujun told Sputnik China.

He further said that it is important to work closely and constantly keep checking the clock. “The fundamental objective of such cooperation should be maintenance and protection of international and regional stability and not the creation of confrontational groups similar to the ones during the Cold War,” the expert said.

News Story: New Zealand, Australian leaders pledge closer trade, science cooperation

WELLINGTON, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of New Zealand and Australia have agreed to work together to revive the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact after the United States' withdrawal under President Donald Trump.

New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English and his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull issued a joint communiqué Friday after talks in New Zealand's South Island mountain resort of Queenstown.

The statement said the two leaders had agreed to continue to push for open markets and regional economic integration, "noting, with concern, growing anti-globalisation sentiment in many parts of the world."

The TPP, signed by 12 nations in Auckland last year, was a "key promoter of regional economic integration and a driver of economic growth, competition, innovation and productivity," it said.

"In light of the intention of the United States not to ratify TPP, the two Prime Ministers agreed that Australia and New Zealand would work together to engage with other TPP partners on the way forward, over the coming months."

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Border tax will create self-defeating dilemma for Washington

by Luo Jun

BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The recent proposal of a controversial border tax on imports by U.S. House Republicans will not only set back global trade rules and hurt the interests of Washington's trading partners, but also cost U.S. consumers and its global influence dearly.

Though there are some good intentions behind the bill, including raising the competitiveness of American products and fostering favorable conditions for the domestic manufacturing industry, it could never meet the goal without paying a much higher price.

The proposed border tax plan immediately shocked the European Union (EU) and other U.S. allies, and may prompt the biggest dispute in the World Trade Organization, as it goes against basic economic principles and established world trade rules.

A radical increase on import tax would put a heavy burden on domestic consumers, retailers and other businesses, as well as overseas trade partners of the United States.

The unilateral disruption of a trade balance could very likely trigger counter measures from other countries, even a chain reaction across the global trade landscape, with the worst case scenario being a trade war that causes losses on all sides.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Australia could be caught in U.S. trade war with China - expert

SYDNEY, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- The looming prospect of a trade war between the United States and China, has a leading Australian expert concerned about the impact on Australia, especially as both nations are the country's most major trading partners.

James Laurenceson, deputy director of the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI), told Xinhua on Wednesday, Trump's behavior towards China is increasingly volatile and erratic, and could lead to a trade war between the two nations.

"The difference between Trump's pre-election rhetoric and the policy decisions since taking office have narrowed, not widened," Laurenceson said.

"Most notably, the people he has surrounded himself with are extreme China hawks, particularly on the trade side."

The primary concern with the Trump administration has always been whether his subordinates were acting on his behalf to further his real policy motives, or whether their actions are being guided as a means of negotiating a stronger position from which to negotiate with China on trade.

Laurenceson was adamant that Trump's comments about Taiwan and currency valuations, prove he is trying to use any means necessary to bargain, but there needs to be real concern that he may attempt to follow through with his controversial words.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Report: Seoul Mulls Possibility to Take China to WTO Over THAAD Retaliation Measures

Seoul considers a possibility to send a case of Chinese unfair retaliation measures regarding South Korean businesses to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for arbitration, Yonhap reported Tuesday, citing an official.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — South Korean authorities accuse Beijing of blocking access of Korean entertainers to Chinese market, as well as of imposing harsh import standards, compared to other countries. China's actions are believed to be triggered by Seoul-Washington joint decision to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea's Seongju County for countering possible North Korea's threats before the end of 2017.

"As we may happen to need to take legal action in the future, a working-level examination is under way on (the illegality of) all measures taken by the Chinese central and regional governments as well as the private sector following the Seoul deployment decision," the official was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency.

The official added it was "not an easy process to say exactly what WTO rules are in breach."

THAAD anti-missile systems, which South Korea agreed in 2016 to be deployed on its territory by the end of 2017, with the stated aim of countering threats from North Korea, serve as one of the main irritants in Beijing-Seoul ties.

China and Russia have repeatedly showed their objection to the deployment of THAAD, arguing that their real aim was to deter the strategic weapon systems not only in the Korean peninsula’s North, but primarily in China's hinterlands and Russia's Far East regions.

This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.

News Story: Canada Stands by Aid to Afghanistan

The Canadian government is standing by its commitment to increase the number of Afghan children and girls in school as the World Bank investigates whether aid funds earmarked for the country's largest national education program were misappropriated, according to Ottawa Citizen a Canadian newspaper.

"We have to wait for the results of the investigation to better understand the scope of the problem," said International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau in a phone interview Wednesday.

Read the full story at TOLOnews