Seoul to stop building new nuke reactors

The United States says while China-led Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank has made progress on free-market practices, many of the projects with Chinese involvement mean state-owned entities play a major role, with less transparency.

The official spoke amid talks in Hoi An, Vietnam, where finance ministers and delegates from the 21-member Apec were meeting ahead of the leaders’ summit in early next month. While trade — a hot-button issue between the US and China — wasn’t included in the final joint statement, it was discussed at length among the delegates.

Criticism of China’s practices remained a central part of the Trump administration’s policies on trade, which have emphasised “fair” over “free” trade as the president pushes for renegotiation of existing pacts in the name of “America First”.

From the US perspective, trade isn’t growth-oriented enough, said the official. Trade should be

market-oriented, and free and fair, rather than through gaining an advantage by creating subsidies and industrial policy, or by increasing debt through nontransparent loans, said the person.

Amid China’s massive longterm push to finance infrastructure projects throughout the region and beyond in the Belt and Road Initiative, the US official noted that those, too, should allow more free-market practices.

While the China-led Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank has made progress on that front, many of the projects with Chinese involvement have meant state-owned entities play a major role, with less transparency, said the official. Bloomberg SEOUL: South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said yesterday the government will continue to phase out nuclear-generated electricity, following a public opinion survey that dealt a blow to his plans to do so.

“We will completely stop all plans for the construction of new nuclear reactors like the government previously stated,” said Moon in a statement.

“The government will also step up usage of natural gas and renewables in order to maintain its stance of phasing out nucleargenerated power.”

Moon’s statement came after a public opinion survey on Friday found a majority of almost 60 per cent in favour of resuming the stalled construction of two reactors.

The president asked his supporters yesterday to respect the outcome of the survey, which he called a “wise and intelligent” response.

Completing the two reactors could mean a reversal of a strategy to slowly reduce nuclear energy’s share of the power mix, and also significantly eat into the liquefied natural gas demand of the world’s secondlargest consumer of the fuel. Reuters