Economics and Trade Relations
Press Conference by
U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Donald L. Evans
Hyatt Hotel - Seoul, Korea - 3:00 p.m.
May 31, 2003
It's 2 o'clock in the morning for me, having just arrived last night from Washington, DC. I am delighted to be here in Seoul, Korea and have a chance to participate this morning in the Global Forum III on Anti-Corruption. It's the third one that has focused on this very important issue of eliminating corruption in the world. Corruption has a way of really hurting our opportunities to expand freedom and peace all around this world and so I was glad to be here to talk about the importance of not only this issue but America's role in leading the world in stamping out corruption around the globe. I'd be delighted to take any questions you might have. Why don't we just go ahead and get right into questions? Yes, sir.
QUESTION: The anti-corruption movement is increasing nowadays. Do you expect this movement to have any influence on corrupted countries as well as international trade order?
SECRETARY EVANS: What kind of countries?
Q: Corrupted countries. Corrupt countries.
SECRETARY EVANS: Are you saying what kind of impact it will have on corrupt countries?
QUESTION: Any corrupted countries.
SECRETARY EVANS: I'm still not sure I understand your question totally, what are you saying? Try me again.
QUESTION: (in Korean with translation):
SECRETARY EVANS: Oh, okay, yeah. This effort has been underway for quite some time. This is, as I've said, the third forum, but this is not the only forum that's focused on corruption. The United Nations is about to finalize negotiations that will mean that countries around the world will be responsible for having anti-corruption laws on their books and enforcing those anti-corruption laws. OECD is also very focused on it, as is APEC, as is the Organization of American States, and the South African Development Community. There are many organizations that are focused on this very important issue and what we're hopeful of is that we'll help eliminate corruption around the world. Because, as I said just a few minutes ago, corruption really robs us of the opportunity to spread democracy and freedom, and robs us of the opportunity to see this world economy grow at its maximum potential. The goal is to lift this world up out of poverty. There are 6 billion people that live on the planet and 3 billion of them live on less than two dollars a day. There's too much poverty in the world and the way you deal with that is with economic growth and economic development. In order to provide that economic growth and development in the world, you have to eliminate corruption, because corruption causes the citizens to lose faith in their public officials, lose faith in democracy. So, I'm hopeful, as we continue to get more and more focused on it in this world, we'll eliminate corruption, which will allow this world to grow at its full potential, which will mean more people will be lifted up out of poverty in the world.
QUESTION: (in Korean - regarding Hynix case)
SECRETARY EVANS: Well, the final position is that we're going to continue to let the process work. This is an investigation, an administrative proceeding, that has been underway for about six months. The Commerce Department had a preliminary ruling several weeks ago. The Commerce Department will have another ruling June 16, that is after further consideration of the viewpoints on both sides of the issue, information from individuals and people from both sides of the issue. The Commerce Department will consider any new information that might be provided, and we'll have a ruling on June 16. That will be followed by a ruling, if needed, by the International Trade Commission on July 31, which would rule on whether or not there has been injury to an American company. Then that would be followed by, again if needed, depending on what the ruling is June 16, and then dependent on what the ruling is July 31, that would be followed by a final order in mid-August. I don't know the exact date.
Go ahead - did you want to follow up on that?
QUESTION: (in Korean)
SECRETARY EVANS: I have no way of knowing. Again, it's an administrative process. We will just go through it in a very transparent and open manner. We will consider information from both sides. I would make note that there are other regions of the world that are also focused on this issue. I think the EU came out not too long ago also with some relatively significant tariffs. So, the US is not the only country that's focused on this issue, but I don't want to prejudge what may or may not happen to the tariffs. We'll just have to wait and see. Yes?
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, Don Kirk, International Herald Tribune. There are quite a few difficult issues in trade and so forth between the United States and Korea. I just wonder whether or not, in your trip here, you've been discussing any of those issues, or had any kind of consultations beyond your attendance at this Anti-Corruption conference, and if you could tell us what you think are the most important issues between the US and Korea on trade and economic relations. And what you're doing about them?
SECRETARY EVANS: I think the most important issue between the United States and Korea as to trade and investment is that Korea is our sixth largest trading partner and that is very important. There is a lot of active, very healthy trade that continues between our two countries. We have a very strong economic relationship between our two countries. I was interested to learn on this trip, through the Commerce Department's Foreign Commercial Service organization here in Seoul, that we've seen small businesses and medium-sized businesses from the United States increase their activity in the last 12 months by some 90 percent. So, there are lots of good stories out there in terms of a vibrant economic relationship between our two countries. Too often, we wind up being focused just on the issues, the disputes. There are always going to be some disputes or issues anytime you have an active trading relationship between countries.
I did have the chance to talk to some of the local ministers about those issues. We did talk about the lack of imports of American-made cars. We did talk about discriminatory pricing of pharmaceutical drugs. We did talk about the importance of transparency and we talked about the importance of intellectual property rights protection; not only to have strong intellectual property rights laws on the books but the importance of enforcement and taking action to make sure that intellectual property rights are being protected. We had a chance to talk about Hynix, the question that's already been asked, so, yes, we had a chance to talk about a number of the issues.
We talked about the idea of a hub, of Seoul being a hub for this part of the world. I gave them some encouragement. I think it's a very good idea, but they have to be focused on creating the right conditions, the right climate, that will attract the capital. Wherever I go in the world, I remind people that capital is basically a coward and it's only going to go to a place that it considers friendly. We in government don't write the checks. The checks are written by the private sector and so the private sector has to see friendly conditions with a kind of environment in which they would like to invest their capital.
Yes, we indeed had some very good discussions and, I thought, very constructive discussions on a number of issues that are on the table right now, but also talked about, again, I mean this is a strong economic relationship. Korea is the fourth largest market for us for agriculture. It's the fifth largest market for us for technology. It's our sixth largest trading partner. It's a powerful, strong relationship so there are a lot of good things to talk about.
QUESTION: (Don Kirk) - What kind of a response did you get on the issues of motor vehicles and pharmaceuticals and intellectual property rights?
SECRETARY EVANS: Well, I got a response that they're focused on it, and they're sensitive to it, and on the intellectual property rights they talked about some new legislation that's going to be put in front of the National Assembly here in the near future and that was constructive. I complimented them on the fact that they were very supportive of the recent auto show that put on display American-made cars. There were some 500,000 people who went through that auto show, so I thanked them for that. I know that the government has also purchased for their police force or their highway patrol a number of American-made cars. That is a very positive gesture, so they obviously understand our concerns on these issues and it looks to me as if they are making every effort to take constructive action and constructive steps.
QUESTION: (in Korean)
SECRETARY EVANS: Well, again, we have a very specific methodology that we go through to determine what the quota or what the tariff may or may not be, what the duty may or may not be. I'm sure it's not exactly the same methodology used by the EU. But I don't want to pre-judge what our final determination will be. We go through these cases in a very thoughtful, transparent kind of manner and those that are opposed to the initial or the preliminary ruling have the opportunity to come back in and argue their position and provide additional information if they have it. So, I'm not going to try and give any kind of an indication one way or the other what I think the final outcome will be. I would just continue to put emphasis on the fact that this is a very transparent, very open process that extends out over a fairly long period of time, months. Yes ma'am.
QUESTION: (Reuters) In regards to transparency and corruption, there are a number of Korean business leaders who have been charged and involved in improper business activities. Do you think the government should keep tightening grips on that kind of illegal, improper business activity and do you have any suggestion or recommendation on what should the government do to stop that kind of illegal or improper activities from conglomerates in South Korea.
SECRETARY EVANS: Well, I know how committed this government is to eliminating corruption around the world. This is a country that has taken the responsibility so seriously that they made the decision to host not only the Global Forum conference, but the International Anti-Corruption Conference that took place also this week. There is not any question about this government's commitment to eliminating corruption, any corruption, anywhere that it exists. I'm not familiar with the specific local issues, I just showed up 24 hours ago, so it's not something that I've really looked at. I had a nice visit with the President while I was here, I know how strongly he feels about eliminating corruption around the world, and I certainly appreciated his support at the conference today, and his leadership on the issue.
QUESTION: (in Korean)
SECRETARY EVANS: Well, as I said earlier in my comments, the government's responsibility is to try to create the right conditions for economic growth. I think it is very important, at least we have learned in our experience in America, that it is very important to have a very flexible labor market. That is something that I think has been one of the keys to our success in the economic growth that we have experienced over the last number of decades, the last five or six decades as a matter of fact. So, wherever I go in the world and talk about creating the conditions for economic growth, and believe me we're talking about them, because this world is becoming more inter-connected and inter-linked every day, and the strength of the American economy depends in some part on the strength of the global economy. We're encouraging growth all around the world, cutting taxes, controlling government spending, and providing for a flexible labor market. I think the more stringent labor regulations and rules and laws that you have, the more difficult it's going to be to be competitive in the world. I think you make decisions based on a pretty simple question, when you put policies and regulations and laws in place, you say “will this make it harder to compete, domestically and internationally, or will it make it easier to compete domestically and internationally?” And if you have very tough, rigid, labor laws and standards and rules and regulations, it makes it harder to compete domestically and internationally.
QUESTION: (in Korean)
SECRETARY EVANS: I'm not familiar of the specifics of the SK scandal. All I would say is that we've dealt with some of our own corporate scandals in America over the last fifteen months, and our President took a very strong position as to how to deal with those scandals, as did, quite frankly, our country. The President laid out a very definitive 10-point plan that dealt with issues like more transparency, more disclosure, more corporate responsibility at the board level and at the CEO level, and then our government also passed a bill called the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002,” which put out even more stringent measures as to corporate accounting and corporate reporting. So, we looked at some of the corporate scandals we had in our own country and took some very decisive, definitive action.
Okay - Thank you all.