May 17, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 14, 1424

SEOUL, May 16: Trade talks between South Korea and the United States on stiff tariffs imposed by Washington on computer chip imports have collapsed, officials said here on Friday.

Last month Washington slapped punitive tariffs on imports of memory chips produced by South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor Inc. in a preliminary ruling.

Talks were convened in Paris Tuesday as South Korea sought to win a suspension of the sanctions against the world’s third largest memory chipmaker.

The two sides failed to reach an agreement due to differences in their positions and US businesses’ negative attitude towards the merits of the talks, the ministry of commerce, industry and energy said in a statement.—AFP