The Federation of Korean Industries(FKI) has expressed concerns over U.S. President Donald Trump’s remark about renegotiating or terminating the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement(FTA).
 
In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, Trump said the South Korea-U.S. FTA is a “horrible” deal, and Washington is going to either renegotiate the deal or terminate it.
 
In a statement, the business lobby group said that it is concerned that Trump’s latest comment will spark the spread of global protectionism.
 
The FKI then noted that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative had assessed in March that the bilateral trade pact is mutually beneficial. The organization stressed that since the adoption of the FTA, bilateral trade of goods and services surged from 126-and-a-half billion dollars in 2011 to 146-point-eight billion dollars in 2015.
 
In particular, the FKI said that U.S.’ export of services to South Korea climbed roughly 23 percent to 20-and-a-half billion dollars compared to before the trade deal was adopted.