Trade Wars Strike Back: Dr. June Park

Amid the maelstrom of the drama around diplomacy with North Korean, it’s easy to forget that South Korea and the United States are engaged in a fairly serious trade dispute over tariffs that Washington imposed on imported solar panels and washing machines. 

This has caused significant tensions at a time when these long-time security allies need to be in lock step to advance the denuclearization of North Korea.

Our guest today, Dr. June Park, is a political economist who has been carefully monitoring trade dispute for years. She is currently an adjunct professor of Global Affairs at the George Mason University Korea and a Non-resident James A. Kelly Korea Fellow at the Pacific Forum.

She is the author of a KEI report on the effects of the ongoing trade war on Korea’s solar panel industry, which you can find in the link below:

http://www.keia.org/sites/default/files/publications/kei_aps_june_park_190102_final.pdf

Dr. Park speaks with KEI's Junil Kim on what factors are driving the current trade frictions and what could be done to alleviate these tensions.