The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is gearing up to renegotiate the Korea-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, demanding greater tariff reductions, according to officials.

The ministry will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, jointly with the Korea International Trade Association, to canvass local academic and industrial circles on the utility of the multilateral trade pact, according to officials.

Its key concern is to promote trade openness for strategic export items in Vietnam and Malaysia.

The contents of the hearing will be reflected in the upcoming renegotiation process, officials said.

The ASEAN community, consisting of 10 Southeast Asian states and a total population of 600 million, is currently Korea’s fifth-largest trade partner, following the United States, China, Japan, and the European Union.

The average tariff cut rate of the Korea-ASEAN FTA, however, was only 90 percent, significantly lower than 99 percent for the Korea-U.S. FTA.

Also, the nation’s key export items, such as automobiles, auto parts and steel products were largely excluded from tariff reduction, triggering skepticism on the effectiveness of the deal.

“In accordance with the Korea-ASEAN trade volume, the corresponding FTA should also be supplemented and reinforced,” said a ministry official. “There is a general consensus among ASEAN states that renegotiation is needed at this point in time,” he said.

The ministry, while working on supplementing the ASEAN FTA, will also simultaneously push ahead with individual bilateral trade pacts with ASEAN member countries, officials said.

The trade pact was Korea’s first FTA to be concluded with a comprehensive economic community.

The nation’s total exports last year amounted to $79 billion, a steep rise from the $32 billion in 2006, the year before the FTA took effect.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)