The free trade agreement between Korea and the U.S. led to an average reduction of 7 percent in wholesale prices and 6.3 percent in retail prices of products imported from the U.S., a think tank under the Korea International Trade Association and the Korea Importers Association said in a report Sunday.Wine and beer (13 percent), fruits and nuts (9.6 percent) and meat and fisheries (7.7 percent) were among the items that showed the sharpest price cuts in the first month under the FTA. Medicine an

Diageo Korea said Sunday it began official sales of Smithwick’s, an Irish red ale with a 300-year tradition.The modern craft beer was launched in Korea for the first time in the Asian market in a bid to rev up sales of premium beers, the company said.Smithwick’s has won seven gold medals from the Monde Selection, a top quality institute that tastes and tests consumer products, for its rich ale flavor and refreshing taste.Unlike lager, which uses only carbonic acid, Smithwick’s uses what is calle

DUBROVNIK, Croatia ― Samsung Electronics announced Saturday that it would unveil a differently-designed OLED television at the upcoming IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin in August.Michael Zoeller, Samsung’s European marketing director, said that it will showcase an “OLED TV with improved design,” stating that it would be different from the one already shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.“We will show another OLED TV that has a pretty new design concept,” he

South Korea, China and Japan agreed Sunday to share information on food security and to enhance their trade of agricultural products.The agreement was made at a trilateral meeting on the southern resort island of Jeju attended by agriculture ministers of the three neighboring Northeast Asia countries, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in a statement.Agriculture Minister Suh Kyu-yong and his Chinese and Japanese counterparts agreed to conduct joint studies of agricul

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a U.S. auditor overseer, said it will continue to enforce a rigorous monitoring system over audit firms to see whether they are doing their jobs effectively as part of efforts to boost investor protection.Its major responsibility includes imposing disciplinary measures and penalties and issuing alerts if the agency finds a trend of possible malpractice among auditing firms or any companies listed or seeking fund-raising in the U.S. capital market.PC