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Provisional Korea-EU FTA fully in effect starting December 13
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on December 11 that the Korea-EU FTA will be in full effect starting December 13 after a provisional period of 4 years and 5 months. The Korea-EU FTA has been provisionally in effect since July 1, 2011 due to the different ratifications by the 27 EU member states. After the full implementation of the FTA on December 13, and according to the decisions made at the EU council meeting, some of the articles that have been excluded during the provisional period, such as cultural cooperation protocol and intellectual property enforcement, have also been put in force. The Cultural Cooperation Protocol regulates cooperation between artists, cultural experts, performers, and audio-visual production as well as broadcasting, performing arts, publication, and cultural properties. The intellectual property enforcement regulates trademark rights, copyright, violation of neighboring rights, criminal punishment procedures, and types with regard to the violation of geographical indication and design counterfeit. * Short version date2015-12-11
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Power supply to be stabilized for this Winter with over 12 million kW in power reserve
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on December 10 that power supply may be stabilized for this winter with power reserves of around 12.21 million kW, which is about 3.85 million kW more than the last winter. According to the ministry's forecast, the expected power consumption this winter is 81 million kW, or 390,000 kW more than the winter of last year. Thanks to new power generators, the maximum power supply capacity will increase by 3.85 million kW to 93.21 million kW. With this, power reserves are expected at around 12.21 million kW --- enough to ensure stable power supply unless the weather is abnormally cold, a large generator shuts down or the power cables break. The Ministry said that it has emergency plans to make sure power supply is stabilized even in case of an accident. The ministry has conducted special inspections on power plants, transmission and transformer facilities that greatly affect power supply in case of a failure. It has also secured 4.21 million kW of power reserve by opening a resource consumption trade market to promote voluntary reduction of power consumption and using the electricity generated through test runs of new generators to be in service from early next year. Additional 3 million kW is also reserved through voltage reduction, maximum operation of privately-owned generators and emergency power-saving in preparation for unexpected power shortage. * Short version date2015-12-10
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A roadmap for smart manufacturing R&D to be announced
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning announced on December 10 that a mid- to long-term roadmap to provide strategic support for smart manufacturing technologies for smart sensors, CPS, 3D printing, energy saving, IoT, cloud, big data and hologram. These are the eight core technologies needed for building a mass production system and innovating the manufacturing industries through early development of new products, production of efficient prototypes and establishment of an optimum mass production system. According to the roadmap, a total of 416 billion won ($376 million) will be invested in the development of smart manufacturing technologies in the next five years. The ministries plan to reflect the importance of technology development, effects on the industries and level of urgency in their R&D and investment plans starting from next year. They forecasted that over 56,000 people will be needed in these areas, and the number of new jobs is expected to reach over 25,000. More demand is expected for the areas of design, planning, security and fusion technology R&D. They plan to focus on the development of human resources for each respective area, strengthening of relationship between businesses and engineering faculties of universities in different regions and designation of human resources development councils for the areas of new technology. They set up a roadmap promotion council composed of 76 experts from universities, businesses and research institutes at the end of April for the innovation of manufacturing industries with the support of KIAT and IITP. * Short version date2015-12-10
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Korea-New Zealand FTA in Force from December 20, 2015
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on December 09 that the FTA between Korea and New Zealand will be in force from December 20, 2015. Korea and New Zealand exchanged diplomatic notes to confirm the enforcement of the FTA on December 20, 2015 at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on December 9, 2015. According to the FTA, customs duties will be reduced for the second time on January 1, 2016 for mutual benefits for both countries. Click below to see details of the Korea-New Zealand FTA. * Short version date2015-12-09
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Korea-China FTA to be in force from December 20
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on December 09 that the FTA between Korea and China will be in force from December 20, 2015. Korea and China exchanged diplomatic notes to finalize the enforcement of Korea-China FTA starting on December 20 in Beijing on December 9, 2015. Customs duties will be reduced on December 20, 2015 and again on January 1, 2016, which will greatly help Korean companies increase their exports to China. The two countries will also speed up the negotiation process to allow Korean companies to enter some of the promising Chinese markets such as law, engineering, environment and entertainment while also removing non-tariff barriers. Meanwhile, a number of global companies from other advanced countries are expected to invest in Korean companies to take advantage of the Korea-China FTA, creating more jobs. Other possible effects of the Korea-China FTA include 0.96 percent GDP increase, $ 14.6 billion increase in consumer service and creation of 53,800 new jobs over the following 10 years. * Short version date2015-12-09
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Trade surplus for 2015 despite drops in both exports and imports
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on December 08 that both imports and exports dropped this year. Exports between January and November reached $ 484.6 billion, which is 7.6 percent lower than the same period of last year, while imports also dropped by 16.6 percent to $ 401.4 billion during the same period. However, the balance of trade was in a surplus since the total amount of imports dropped more significantly due to material price reduction. The total trade surplus between January and November reached a record-breaking $ 83.2 billion. Some of the main reasons for the drop in imports and exports include reduced raw material price, global trade slowdown and weak yen and euro. Other structural factors include slow Chinese economic growth and expansion of overseas production of major industries. Korean companies now have the largest share of the Chinese import market by recording 10.5 percent (Jan~Aug) from 9.7 percent last year. Their share of the U.S. import market also increased from 3.0 percent to 3.3 percent (Jan~Aug), which is higher than those of Germany, Japan and other exporters. Korea beat France in international exports by ranking 6th this year. According to the WTO's announcement on export growth by major countries in the first half of this year, Korean exports rose by 5.6 percent, while Japan and EU recorded 3.8 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively. It's more than twice the average growth rate, which is 2.3 percent. The export share of SME's continues to grow. The export share of Korean SME's rose to 33.8 percent last year from 32.1 percent in 2012, and then to 35.7 percent between January and September this year. Export items are also being diversified thanks to the development of new promising items. Until November this year, new promising items that showed growth included cosmetics (57.5 percent), OLED (26.4 percent) and SSD (31.0 percent). * Short version date2015-12-08
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Korean government to increase the number of eco-friendly cars to one million by 2020
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced the "3rd Master Plan for the Development and Supply of Eco-Friendly Cars" on December 08. Here are the details: A total of 80,000 eco-friendly cars were produced this year, and the number will increase to 920,000 in 2020. The number of imported eco-friendly cars will also increase from 50,000 to 640,000 in the same year. Currently there are 180,000 eco-friendly cars in Korea, and the plan is to increase the number to 1.08 million by 2020. This means that 20 percent of the entire volume of cars will be eco-friendly. The plan also includes securing technological competitiveness to improve the price competitiveness of eco-friendly cars from 44 percent to 72 percent, and technological level from 93 percent to 96 percent in comparison with other advanced countries. To achieve these goals, MOTIE came up with the three following strategies: 1. Develop competitive eco-friendly cars Invest a total of 150 billion($ 132 million) in R&D over a period of 5 years with the aim to improve the performance of core parts in order overcome the limitations of eco-friendly cars such as short driving range and high price. Improve the performance of batteries and other important parts to improve the performance and driving range by 2.5 times, and shave off the price of hydrogen vehicles by more than 40 percent by using new materials and developing new high pressure vessels. 2. Expand low cost and high efficiency infrastructure Build 1,400 public EV charging stations and 80 hydrogen charging stations by 2020 to make it easier for eco-friendly car owners to charge their car. Also build "Fusion Charging Stations" with gas, CNC and hydrogen charging stations in order to reduce the cost of building hydrogen charging stations, which cost about KRW3 billion won to build. In addition, build "Module Charging Stations" by making the charging parts in modules for space efficiency. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to run test projects from 2016. 3. Build social infrastructure for using eco-friendly cars Offer subsidies to people wishing to buy eco-friendly cars, build charging stations and offer operating subsidies by 2020. In 2016, the subsidies are 27.5 million won for hydrogen cars, 12 million won for EV's, 5 million won for PHV's and 1 million won for HV's Specify the management system for EV charging business and propose a hydrogen pricing guideline in order to promote related industries to help ensure profits for both the eco-friendly car owners and charging station owners. Offer a reasonable price for charging EV's at public charging stations, which are currently provided for free, in order to establish a more stable basis for users, and reduce the hydrogen price by purchasing in large quantities. New systems are also on the way. EV car parking spaces will be mandatory in new apartment buildings to make it easier to install charging stations, and issue different license plates for EV's. Also, buildings installed with an EV charging station will be given Green Building Certificate Points, and EV tuning businesses will receive support. * Short version date2015-12-08
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Joint Korea-Czech nuclear power cooperation committee discusses measures to enter third countries
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on December 03 that MOTIE and Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade held the Joint Korea-Czech Nuclear Power Cooperation Committee meeting in Prague on December 1, 2015. The meeting was attended by over 40 delegates and representatives of businesses in the nuclear power industry. The meeting was focused on establishing a plan for promoting new nuclear power plants in Czech, joint marketing in third countries and joint research on EU-APR. The meeting was followed by a business conference the afternoon with the participation of business representatives, who had one-on-one conversation on nuclear power plant operation, fuel, maintenance and materials, as well as localization and cooperation in tapping into third countries. Also after the joint committee meeting, an MOU on nuclear power cooperation was signed between Skoda Praha, a subsidiary of CEZ, and KEPCO. According to the MOU, the two companies agreed to jointly develop new nuclear power businesses, operate/maintain nuclear power plants, establish a supply network and exchange new technologies. On the next day, KHNP signed a consulting agreement with Skoda Praha on obtaining the EUR certificate. The EUR (European Utility Requirements) are nuclear reactor design requirements for European businesses necessary when bidding for a new nuclear power plant project. The two companies agreed to make joint efforts to obtain the EUR certificate until 2017. According to the New Nuclear Power Plant Construction Plan announced by CEZ in May 2015, the Republic of Czech will decide on a new nuclear power business model by June 2015 and suppliers through public bidding before 2019. The Republic of Czech currently has a total of 6 nuclear power plants ---4 in Dukovany and 2 in Temelin --- and these power plants generate about 35 percent of the electricity used in the country. * Short version date2015-12-03