New trade chief vows to forge US-Korea framework rivaling FTA

Park Jeong-seong, the newly appointed chief of the trade negotiation bureau at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said Monday he would use ongoing strategic investment talks with the United States as a springboard to build a new bilateral framework on par with the Korea-US free trade agreement.

Speaking at his inauguration ceremony at Government Complex Sejong, Park said the implementation of strategic investment between the two countries had emerged as "the greatest challenge and opportunity" in the bilateral relationship. "Through the strategic investment consultations, we will forge a new framework for bilateral cooperation that rivals the Korea-US FTA of the past," he said, adding that the talks would also give South Koreans "a new perspective on the Korea-US relationship."

Park said securing irreplaceable industries and technologies was the core of industrial policy, while creating space for that within global supply chains was the core of trade policy. "We have become a country with industries that are irreplaceable — or growing toward being irreplaceable — in semiconductors, nuclear energy, shipbuilding and more," he said.

He said South Korea had once had no choice but to conform to the global trade order, but that industrial growth had brought the country to a position where it could "speak up with confidence as a stakeholder in shaping a new trade order." He added that annual exports were surging from $700 billion toward $1 trillion on the strength of its irreplaceable industries.

"We must never forget that in the reality of economic security, countries with irreplaceable industries are chosen, while countries with only replaceable industries are forced to choose," he said.

Park also identified market diversification and securing supply chains for essential resources as key priorities. "We must consistently pursue diversification," he said, adding that both the markets from which South Korea sources resources and those to which it exports goods need to be diversified — "an essential requirement of economic security."

He said trade strategy for essential resource sectors — including food and critical minerals, which had received relatively little attention under the previous trade order — needed to be overhauled. "Rather than a defensive response focused on supporting those harmed by openness, it is time to respond actively and proactively from the standpoint of stabilizing the essential supply chains we need for economic security," he said.

Park also outlined his vision for how the bureau should operate: as a "capable organization" that communicates actively with businesses, farmers and fishing communities on the ground; a "horizontal organization" that values collaboration among its members and across the government; and a "cooperative organization" that stays closely connected with other ministries and overseas missions.

"I will make the trade negotiation bureau the organization with the lowest center of gravity," he said. "The sweeping shift in the trade order is not something one heroic trade negotiator can change, and trade policy is not a dance the bureau performs alone."

Park passed the civil service examination in the trade track and holds a degree in economics from Seoul National University as well as a law degree from a US law school. He is licensed to practice law in New York and New Jersey. Over his career, he served as head of the free trade agreement team at the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, director of trade and development at the presidential G20 Summit Preparatory Committee, economic counselor at the South Korean embassy in Malaysia, and an official in the presidential secretariat's industry and trade affairs office. He later served as director-general for trade policy and head of management support at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and as director for industry, science and small and medium-sized enterprise policy at the Office for Government Policy Coordination. He became the first official from the ministry to serve as deputy ambassador to the World Trade Organization, and after the launch of the Lee Jae Myung administration, rose through the positions of director-general for trade and investment and deputy minister for trade before being appointed bureau chief.

Kim Hyun-jong, a former trade negotiation bureau chief and former third deputy director of the National Security Office, has spoken highly of Park since his days as a director, once calling him "a national team civil servant of the Republic of Korea."