Commerce chiefs of U.S., S. Korea agree to work together for supply chain resiliency

By Byun Duk-kun

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and her South Korean counterpart, Moon Sung-wook, have agreed to cooperate on enhancing their countries' supply chain resiliency, the Department of Commerce said.

The leaders also agreed to expand the countries' commercial forum to jointly tackle other issues, such as setting global standards for key industrial sectors, according to a press release released Tuesday.

"Today, we reaffirm our commitment to collaborate through the U.S. – Korea Commercial Forum. We celebrate our early progress and look forward to holding discussions on semiconductor supply chains with U.S. and Korean firms in the future as the first step in this engagement," Raimondo said after her Tuesday meeting with Moon, minister of trade, industry and energy.

"Our teams also agreed to share information on reducing the risk of supply and demand imbalance of chips capacity, including technology and investment priorities, and work together to coordinate our efforts to resolve the current supply chain crisis and position the supply chain to minimize future bottlenecks," she added, according to the press release.

Moon arrived here Tuesday on a three-day visit that also included a meeting with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

The Moon-Raimondo meeting came one day after some 200 global chipmakers and other businesses, including South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., were asked to submit information on their business to the U.S. to resolve the ongoing semiconductor shortage.

Raimondo said the U.S. and South Korea will continue to work through their joint commerce forum to tackle supply chain issues and others.

"We are finalizing a work plan that builds on extensive engagement with stakeholders in several industries. Forum activities also will address shared policy priorities, such as standards and supply chain resilience," she said.

"In addition, periodic Forum meetings will convene government and industry leaders to inform our approach and drive commercially meaningful outcomes."

bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)