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The 10th WTO Trade Policy Review of Canada
(June 15 and 17, 2015)
Statement by the Republic of Korea
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to join the previous speakers in extending a warm welcome to the delegation of Canada for its tenth trade policy review, and especially thank Director-General Cameron Mackay for his comprehensive presentation. Allow me also to express my sincere appreciation to Ambassador Jonathan Fried for his dedication to the work of the WTO.
My special thanks go as well to Ambassador Remigi Winzap (of Switzerland) for his insightful contribution as a discussant and to the Secretariat for its detailed and informative report.
Mr. Chairman,
I am pleased to note that Canada and Korea have maintained mutually beneficial trade relationship over the years based on the complementary nature of both economies. Korea is Canada’s seventh largest trading partner and third largest in Asia. Bilateral trade volume between the two countries has steadily increased, reaching more than 11.4 billion US dollars in 2014, with Canada’s exports to Korea reaching 4.2 billion dollars.
With respect to FDI, Korea’s investment to Canada amounted to 10 billion dollars, and Canada’s investment to Korea amounted to 5.5 billion dollars in 2012. Importantly, these figures demonstrate a very close economic partnership that will continue to grow and develop in the future.
Mr. Chairman,
Turning to Canada’s overall economic performance, Korea would like to commend the Canadian government for recovering well from the financial crisis and achieving an average 2.4% GDP growth during the review period. Even though its economy has faced some challenges and the growth rate slightly declined to below 2% between 2012-14 mainly
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due to weaker export growth and investment, we believe that its unilateral trade liberalization policies coupled with its wide ranging structural reforms have and will continue to be the major source of its economic strength and success.
More specifically, the average applied tariff for non-agricultural products during the period declined from 2.5% to 2.4%. A number of autonomous liberalization initiatives were undertaken in some sectors including machinery, clothes, sports equipment and offshore drilling units. In addition, the revised GPA came into force for Canada in 2014 whereby Canada’s market access commitments at the sub-federal level have been significantly expanded. All provinces and territories as well as 10 federal crown corporations are now covered in Canada’s GPA schedule. As a firm believer in the multilateral trading system embodied in the WTO, Canada has played a key role by actively participating in the DDA negotiations and plurilateral negotiations.
On the bilateral front, it is our hope that the Korea-Canada Free Trade Agreement, Canada’s first FTA with an Asian country, which entered into force this January will help deepen the economic cooperation between the two countries. We also hope that it will play a role in helping advance trade liberalization as it aims to achieve a comprehensive and high- quality trade deal while fully respecting WTO standards.
Mr. Chairman,
Korea would like to provide a brief comment on Canada’s trade remedies where we find there is room for improvement. We note that, as pointed out in the Secretariat Report, Canada has used anti-dumping and countervailing duty measures at an accelerated pace during the review period. There were 43 initiations of anti-dumping investigations and 21 initiations of countervailing duty investigations. It is important to note that the majority of investigations involved countries from Asia. In 2014, there were 6 anti-dumping measures in force and 2 investigations initiated on imports of Korean products, primarily steel products. Taking into account the adverse effects of these measures on trade, it would be advisable that more prudent approaches be taken in initiating anti-
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dumping investigations.
* 2014년말 기준 캐나다의 對한 반덤핑 조치 6건(철강 5, 전자 1), 조사중 2건(철강 2)
Finally, Mr. Chairman, we very much hope that Canada, as one of the world’s most open and responsible trading nations, will continue to play an important role in helping not only strengthen the WTO multilateral trading system as a whole, but also advance the DDA negotiations. To be clear, Korea has and will continue to work closely with Canada within the context of the DDA and plurilateral negotiations. With this, I would like to conclude by expressing my sincere appreciation to the Canadian delegation for its hard work and wish Canada every success in its TPR.
Thank you.
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