SOUTH KOREA TO MAINTAIN TRADE SURPLUS 3-5 YEARS

  South Korean Trade Minister Rha
  Woong Bae said his nation would maintain a trading surplus for
  three to five years as a way to cut its foreign debt.
      He said in an interview with Reuters that after a few years
  it was likely South Korea would drop barriers to foreign goods
  and move toward a more balanced trade position.
      He said the present trade surplus was vital if his nation
  was to reduce its 44.5 billion dlr foreign debt.
      Rha said that 1986 was the first year South Korea had a
  trade surplus - 4.5 billion dlrs, against a 1985 deficit of 900
  mln dlrs.
      Asked if South Korea would drop its trade barriers once its
  foreign debt was substantially reduced, he said "yes, I think
  so."
      Rha made his remarks at the end of a two-week trade mission
  here during which a team he led agreed to buy U.S. products
  valued at 1.8 billion dlrs.
      About 800 mln dlrs of the purchases are in goods of the
  type South Korea normally bought from Japan.
      Rha was to leave later today for Ottawa for trade talks
  with Canadian officials and businessmen.
      He said in the interview the U.S. purchases were to reduce
  his country's 7.1 billion dlr surplus with the United States
  and also to cut its 5.6 billion dlr shortfall with Japan.
      Rha said it was also due to a shift in exchange rates
  between the U.S. dollar and the yen that made it cheaper to buy
  U.S. goods than Japanese goods.
      He said South Korea heavily relied on foreign trade and he
  hoped the leaders of major trading nations could find a way to
  resolve the growing trend toward protectionist legislation.
      Rha said "I hope the leaders can get together to find a
  solution by making some mutually satisfactory concessions."
      But he added "the leaders seem hesitant to make concessions
  because of domestic political reasons."
      Speaking of his own country, he said "We have made a lot of
  concessions already."
      He cited regulations permitting foreign investment in
  industrial firms, allowing increased foreign banking activity
  and cracking down on piracy of intellectual property by
  strengthening protection of copyrights and patents.
      Rha said South Korea had also lowered many of its tariffs.
      Asked if South Korea would retaliate against U.S. goods if
  Congress closed U.S. markets to its products, he said "at this
  moment, we have no thought of retaliation."
      South Korea is a major exporter to the United States of
  textiles and apparel and electronic goods, such as television
  sets, video cassette records and personal computers.
      Its puchases from the United States include electronic
  testing equipment and grains and cotton.
      The trade mission's purchases here included three Boeing
  passenger planes for 400 mln dlrs, four McDonnell Douglas
  planes for 300 mln dlrs; and machinery worth 725 mln dlrs.
  

