A domestic think tank says that if South Korea and the United States renegotiate their bilateral free trade agreement, it would cause the loss of 240,000 jobs and result in export losses worth 26-point-nine billion U.S. dollars for South Korea between 2017 and 2021.
 
The Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) said on Sunday in its report that the projection is based on the assumption that the United States revives its tariffs on South Korean products – ten percent on automobiles, 20 percent on textile and five percent on other products and that a one percent increase in tariffs will lead to a decrease of zero-point-59 percent in South Korea’s exports to the United States.
 
The report said that South Korea’s auto industry will suffer most from a renegotiation of the trade deal, as its export losses are expected to reach 13-point-three billion U.S. dollars.
 
The KERI said that the United States is likely to levy antidumping and countervailing duties against South Korea even if Hillary Clinton is elected as president, causing export losses of eleven-point-nine billion dollars and a loss of 92-thousand jobs for South Korea for five years from 2017.