U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement: Potential Economy-wide ... - USITC

The government procurement annex contains each party’s schedule listing the entities at the
central level of government to which the estimated threshold of the procurement value
applies. 84 A $100,000 or 100 million Korean won threshold is set out in the annex for the
procurement of goods and services, and a Special Drawing Rights of 5 million (stated in the
text as $7,407,000, or 7.4 billion Korean won) threshold is set out for procurement of
construction services. 85 Adjustments concerning the former threshold that may arise in the
future would be worked out through consultations between the parties as necessary, and for
the latter threshold through conversion to national currencies as provided for in the WTO
GPA. 86 For Korea, only certain categories of goods involving the Ministry of National
Defense would be open to foreign procurement tendering, as listed in the annex. 87
FTA Chapter 18—Intellectual Property Rights
The IPR chapter contains detailed provisions governing the protection and enforcement of
major forms of intellectual property including trademarks, copyrights, and patents. The
chapter begins with general provisions that would require ratification or accession to
specified international conventions, and reasonable effort to ratify or accede to others. 88 The
general provisions also contain national treatment and transparency obligations, as well as
an exception to national treatment for particular analog communications. 89
Trademarks, Geographical Indications, and Domain Names
The trademark section of the FTA would broaden the scope of trademarks to be protected
to include marks that are not visually perceptible, certification marks, and geographical
indications, 90 and would establish broader protections for well-known marks. It would
provide for the automation of trademark services with online databases and electronic means
of communication and eliminate the requirement that trademark licenses be recorded. This
section also sets forth procedures for the protection of geographical indications and prohibits
recognition of a geographical indication that is confusingly similar to a prior trademark or
a well-known trademark. 91 In the area of Internet domain names, the FTA would require the
84 USTR, “Government Procurement Annex 17-A,” Draft—Free Trade Agreement Between the United
States of America and the Republic of Korea.
85 USTR, “Final - United States - Korea FTA Texts,” 2007.
86 Ibid..
87 Ibid. For the United States, certain categories of goods involving the Department of Defense are exempt
from the chapter’s provisions, including particular ships and ship-related equipment; certain “specialty
metals” such as certain steels, titanium, or zirconium and their alloys; and a number of types of weapons and
ordnance, aircraft and ships and related components, as well as other categories involving related electronic,
fiber optic, and communication components. Various exemptions on the U.S. schedule also include certain
items procured by the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security, and
Transportation, and the General Services Administration. The parties also list particular limitations on
coverage, including the U.S. set-asides for small and minority-owned business. USTR, “Final - United States
- Korea FTA Texts,” 2007, “Notes to United States Schedule.”
88 USTR, “Final - United States - Korea FTA Texts,” 2007, Article 18.1.3 and 18.1.4.
89 Ibid., Article 18.16. A similar-carve out also is contained in the U.S.-Australia FTA.
90 Examples of geographical indications from the United States include “Idaho” for potatoes and “Florida”
for oranges.
91 USTR, “Final - United States - Korea FTA Texts,” 2007, Articles 18.2.6–18.2.8, 18.2.10, and
18.2.13–18.2.15.
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