United States Trade South Korea

The Port of Long Beach on Wednesday said it signed an agreement with a major South Korean shipping line to operate a 375-acre cargo terminal on the site of the former Long Beach Naval Station. That site was the focus of a bitter fight two years ago when the port tried to lease the historic base to a firm owned by the Chinese government. If completed, the deal with the Hanjin Shipping Co.

A U.S. trade agency said stainless steel imports from Japan, South Korea and Spain have hurt Slater Steel Inc., one of North America's biggest specialty steel makers, clearing the way for duties of as much as 115%. The decision, the latest victory by the U.S. steel industry in its effort to repel imports from the U.S. market, affects such companies as Japan's Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd., Daido Steel Co. and Aichi Steel Corp.

Eighteen people from South Korea, the United States and Mexico were charged by a federal grand jury with engaging in a worldwide conspiracy to market counterfeit merchandise, including millions of pairs of athletic shoes bearing such trendy labels as Nike, Reebok, L.A. Gear and Converse, authorities announced Friday. The government investigation, coordinated by federal prosecutors in Arizona and the U.S.

The Port of Long Beach on Wednesday said it signed an agreement with a major South Korean shipping line to operate a 375-acre cargo terminal on the site of the former Long Beach Naval Station. That site was the focus of a bitter fight two years ago when the port tried to lease the historic base to a firm owned by the Chinese government. If completed, the deal with the Hanjin Shipping Co.

In a second major legal setback for Northrop Corp., an international arbitration group has concluded that the company paid $6.25 million to a South Korean power broker in a possibly illegal attempt to sell its jet fighters to that country's air force. The arbitrator rejected Northrop's claim that the money was intended to finance the building of a luxury hotel. The ruling said that three company vice presidents were aware of the real purpose of the funds and that its chairman, Thomas V.

Korean Air, the privately held South Korean carrier, Monday ordered 23 of Boeing Co.'s new 747-400 airliners in an order likely to be worth $4.8 billion. The order, third-largest in the Seattle-based manufacturer's history, will greatly help decrease the trade imbalance between South Korea and the United States. It was announced during a visit to Washington, D.C., by a South Korean trade mission. The airline had previously ordered nine of the big jetliners.

When South Korean authorities lifted restrictions on the sale of imported tobacco this month, some Koreans became two-pack smokers--puffing away at domestic cigarettes in public but keeping a pack of foreign cigarettes to inhale in private. The double life of tobacco addicts is one of the more peculiar manifestations of bubbling nationalism in South Korea. American brands are now widely available and nearly as cheap as the domestic competition. But smoking them is simply unpatriotic.

While on the subject of Korean car companies, the president of Irvine-based Kia Motors America recently told dealers that the company's U.S. expansion is continuing as planned, despite Kia's troubles at home. (It has been placed under control of the country's national bank because of mounting debt.) In fact, President W.K. Kim told dealers at the recent National Automobile Dealers Assn. convention in New Orleans, Kia might just outsell rival Hyundai Motor America in the U.S. this year.

Trade practices in Japan, the European Union, South Korea and China harm U.S. companies, the Clinton administration said Tuesday in its annual report on foreign trade barriers. These four led 49 countries and three trading groups put on notice that they had erected unfair trade barriers, were failing to adequately protect U.S. copyrights and patents or were otherwise engaging in trade practices that the administration considers unfair.

Daewoo Plans to Sell Cars in U.S.: Daewoo Motors Corp. of South Korea will begin selling cars in the U.S. in late 1997 or early 1998, Chairman Kim Woo-Choong said. Daewoo plans to sell 100,000 vehicles a year in the U.S. by 2000, Kim said. Daewoo Motors, a unit of Daewoo Group, plans to introduce a small car and sell it directly to consumers rather than using dealerships. Direct-sales offices resemble car dealerships but are company-owned. Consumers order vehicles directly from the company.

Under pressure from U.S. steelmakers and labor unions, President Clinton on Friday imposed punitive tariffs on steel imports in a move that could increase trade tensions between the United States and major steel- producing nations such as Brazil, Japan and South Korea. The White House said the tariffs will apply to imported steel wire rod, which is used to make hangers, cables and fasteners, and imported line pipe.

After having laid off seven of his eight workers last year, tour operator Richard Park now displays a help-wanted sign in his Koreatown storefront window. "It's going to be good this summer," said the broadly smiling owner of Paradise Tour, where bookings from South Korean tour groups are pouring in. Just as the collapse of South Korea's economy last year hit parts of Southern California hard, so South Korea's fledgling recovery is already trickling across the Pacific.

A U.S trade agency rejected a complaint from U.S. steelmakers that stainless steel round wire imports from Japan, South Korea and four other countries hurt their business, marking a rare setback for a domestic industry trying to shut out imports. The International Trade Commission, an autonomous government agency that monitors the effects of trade on industries, voted 6 to 0 to block the Commerce Department from collecting proposed duties of up to 36% on the imports.

The Clinton administration moved a step closer to slapping punitive tariffs on Japan, Spain and four other countries with a ruling that they illegally price some stainless steel in the United States. Shipments of stainless round wire from those countries would be subject to tariffs of as much as 36% if the U.S. International Trade Commission determines by mid-May that their pricing practices have injured or could injure U.S. producers.

President Clinton probably will announce next week that he will seek voluntary agreements with Russia, South Korea, Japan and Brazil to limit the amount of steel they ship to the U.S., two Clinton aides and two industry officials said Thursday. Clinton is looking at two Commerce Department plans to stem the tide of cheap steel imports coming into the U.S. market. The two Clinton aides said one plan would allow Russia to continue to export steel to the U.S.

The U.S. came to an agreement with South Korea over improving access to the Asian country's auto market, averting the threat of U.S. sanctions on Korean car imports. The deal attempts to improve on a 1995 agreement that auto makers complained had failed to help them compete on equal terms in South Korea's car market. The U.S.

Parsons Unit Named to Work on New Airport: Parsons Corp. said a group led by its Parsons Overseas unit and Korea Power Engineering Co. was awarded a contract to work on construction of the $8-billion New Seoul International Airport in South Korea. The contract calls for Parsons, Korea Power and a consortium of other firms to provide services including design review, project controls, construction management, quality control, safety and start-up assistance.

South Korea must change its rules regulating a broad range of imported food products to avoid a fight with the United States at the World Trade Organization, a U.S. official said Tuesday. Just making changes in its regulations governing imported meat products will not be sufficient if Seoul wants to settle an increasingly bitter trade dispute with Washington, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "If the Koreans want assurance that the U.S.

Trade practices in Japan, the European Union, South Korea and China harm U.S. companies, the Clinton administration said Tuesday in its annual report on foreign trade barriers. These four led 49 countries and three trading groups put on notice that they had erected unfair trade barriers, were failing to adequately protect U.S. copyrights and patents or were otherwise engaging in trade practices that the administration considers unfair.

The Commerce Department made a preliminary ruling against two South Korean memory chip makers, saying they sold products below fair market value during the 12 months starting in May 1996. The ruling represents a victory for Micron Technology Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc., the two U.S. companies that make dynamic random-access memory chips, or DRAMs, whose prices have tumbled in the face of oversupply from Asia. The Commerce Department found that LG Semiconductor sold DRAMs at 7.