I wonder how free trade will change life here?

Korean president Lee Myung Bak is in Washington today to sign a free trade agreement with President Obama. This is something Korea has not been willing to do historically, as they have usually practiced excessive protectionism. Hyundai, KIA, Samsung, LG and Lotte are all guaranteed 45 million customers. However, overall it's the Americans agreeing to it that I can't understand.

Currently Koreans make some of the best cars in the world, and they do it cheap. In Korea a new Hyundai can be as little as $10,000 USD. While it would be more expensive in the U.S it would still be sold for less than a Ford. Also, it is more gas efficient than any U.S model and there's no chance of Hyundai folding in the next five years. In contrast, U.S vehicles are seen as big, unsafe and unreliable (what good is a warranty from a company that no longer exists?). In fact, the bill could still be held up in Korea because President Lee has agreed to lower Korean safety standards on some models to allow U.S cars to be sold legally in Korea. Finally, American cars are, well huge. Parking in Korea is at a bit of a premium and driving the new Chevy Testosterone model SUV in Seoul will assure that you will not be driving down most alleys or parking anywhere. There's also the patriotic element, of which the average Korean makes a US army colonel look like Michael Moore. Japanese cars have never been sold in Korea because buying one is considered treacherous. The U.S gets a better reputation but buying American is NOT buying Korean and for the reasons mentioned above you don't often see them. BMW's are sold to the wealthy here, but they are manufactured in Korea.

Food prices will drop, which is a good thing. Food prices in Korea have nearly doubled on many items in the last 5 years and new U.S imports will ease that. Korea already allows duty free imports of food from Australia and China and now it will allow U.S food imports for free...... too bad all that U.S meet has mad cow :p

On electronics I have no idea. In Canada, the U.S or Australia where Japanese Sony and Panasonic compete with American RCA, Taiwanese Acer and Korean LG and Samsung there's not a lot to separate them in terms of quality. In Korea the fact that it's an American model might get a few people up in Gangnam interested (it's American, like Brad Pitt!). Well to be fair it'll be trendy everywhere, so they might do okay. No Korean will buy a U.S cellphone unless it's with a Korean carrier. Sprint charges more and nickel and dimes you on everything until an American is paying more for one month of cell phone use than a Korean in paying for three. But if they conform to Korean standards the stylish U.S appeal may get a few young and wealthy types interested.

Other than that I'm not sure what else there is. I guess raw materials like lumber will get a boost in export to Korea. If Hyundai and Samsung open plants in the U.S they will need parts and that may create jobs in the U.S, though with NAFTA they could just have them made in Mexico for way less. That being said, a few years back Chevrolet put out ads showing Chevy jeeps at Normandy, Iwo Jima and other WWII sites (the shot at Japanese automakers being somewhat less than subtle). Toyota responded by buying many of those factories that Chevy shut down when they moved to Mexico and China and put US workers back to work (outside the autoworkers union of course) and today Toyota has more of a claim to being "made in America" than Chevy does. Don't think even the most uneducated consumer didn't notice that. On top of that, Toyota made better cars. Hyundai could do the same, so Obama's claim of 70,000 new jobs may not be a lie (though how many will be lost should really be deducted from that).

As for me, I do like the prospect of a 1200 won ($1) Samuel Adams Boston lager :)