Following the U.S.’ request for a meeting regarding a possible revision of the bilateral free trade pact, Seoul says a correlation between the trade pact and trade imbalance should be verified first.  
 
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Cho June-hyuck said Thursday that South Korea will stress that working-level officials from both sides first need to thoroughly study and analyze the impact of the KORUS FTA and examine whether it is in fact a cause of the trade imbalance between the two countries.
 
The spokesman predicted the U.S. will make specific demands during the special Joint Committee meeting, including a revision of the FTA.
 
Citing that the trade pact requires consent from both sides for any decision to be made, Cho noted that the joint committee will be able to decide to open negotiations for revising the FTA only when South Korea agrees with the U.S.
 
The U.S. Trade Representative(USTR) on Wednesday said in a statement that it requested Seoul to convene a special Joint Committee meeting under the FTA to start the process of removing barriers to U.S. trade and consider needed amendments.