Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Paik Un-gyu has stressed that negotiations with the U.S. on revising the bilateral free trade agreement(FTA) and exchange rates are two very separate issues. 

Paik’s comments to reporters on Thursday came amid controversy that efforts to revise the South Korea-U.S. FTA is being linked to South Korea’s exchange rate actions. 

Paik said a misunderstanding seems to have emerged as talks on the trade deal and U.S. steel tariffs took place at the same time. He said that the industry ministry does not have negotiators who handle exchange rate issues. 

A senior Finance Ministry official echoed Paik’s comments the same day, saying that Seoul strongly protested to Washington for causing unnecessary misunderstanding in announcing the results of its talks with South Korea on the revision of their trade accord. 

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative had said in a report on the results of the trade talks that “an agreement (memorandum of understanding) is being finalized on robust provisions to prohibit competitive devaluation and exchange rate manipulation in order to promote a level playing field for trade and investment.”