P.M. BRIEFING : Stop Nagging, Seoul Tells U.S.

SEOUL — The United States should stop nagging South Korea on bilateral trade issues and start working with Seoul as a cooperative partner, South Korea’s top economic official said today.

“The U.S. economic relationship should be broadened,” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Planning Lee Seung Yun told visiting American businessmen. “Rather than somewhat narrowly focusing on bilateral issues and conflicting concerns as in the 1980s, we should strive for a mutually beneficial partnership in the 1990s.”

He slammed what he called the “interventionist practices of the United States,” such as forcing South Koreans to impose so-called voluntary restraints on steel exports. “It would greatly help our efforts to reduce government intervention if the United States also reduces its government interventions restricting imports,” he said.

The U.S. trade representative’s office over the last few years has threatened retaliation under the Super 301 provision of the revised trade act to pressure South Korea to open its markets to foreign-made goods and reduce its exports.