Inside US Trade describes the steel quotas agreed to as part of the KORUS modifications as follows:
Korea’s trade minister Kim Hyun-chong announced at a press briefing Monday that Korea would receive a quota of about 2.68 million tons of steel exports to the U.S. annually, which is equivalent to about 70 percent of the annual average exports between 2015 and 2017.
This seems like a clear violation of Safeguards Agreement Article 11.1(b), which states:
(b) Furthermore, a Member shall not seek, take or maintain any voluntary export restraints, orderly marketing arrangements or any other similar measures on the export or the import side.3,4 These include actions taken by a single Member as well as actions under agreements, arrangements and understandings entered into by two or more Members. Any such measure in effect on the date of entry into force of the WTO Agreement shall be brought into conformity with this Agreement or phased out in accordance with paragraph 2.
....
3 An import quota applied as a safeguard measure in conformity with the relevant provisions of GATT 1994 and this Agreement may, by mutual agreement, be administered by the exporting Member.
4 Examples of similar measures include export moderation, export-price or import-price monitoring systems, export or import surveillance, compulsory import cartels and discretionary export or import licensing schemes, any of which afford protection.
The KORUS steel quotas almost certainly fall within the description above.
But the question is, will anyone file a WTO complaint against one or both countries? The jurisprudence on "standing" related to whether a country has an interest in a measure seems broad enough that it shouldn't be much of a hurdle to bringing a case. On the other hand, if a country can't demonstrate any economic harm, there might not be much hope of being able to impose retaliation that could lead to compliance. Nevertheless, some countries may be able to demonstrate harm, and other countries might bring the case as a matter of principle just to get a ruling that there is a violation here.
