Today's FT reports that the U.S.-Korea FTA may be held up because of unsatisfactory investment protection provisions:
Against a backdrop of rising economic nationalism, the state audit board has called for the purchase [of Korea Exchange Bank by Lone Star, a U.S. company] to be nullified on the grounds that Lone Star bought the bank at an artificially cheap price in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
The Korean government has repeatedly said it will treat foreign investors fairly and in accordance with the law.
Lobbyists for Chevron say diluted investment rules under negotiation could leave its joint-venture refinery with LG Group – one of Asia’s biggest – legally vulnerable to expropriation.
The fear of economic nationalism and expropriation, even in Korea which is no longer a developing country, seems to have stimulated U.S. business lobbyists to act.
