U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with reporters following the G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Quebec, Canada, Friday (local time). Reuters-Yonhap

Concerns are mounting over a potential revision of the Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) following U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's remarks suggesting that the Donald Trump administration is determined to reshape the current trade environment to the U.S.' advantage.

Although Rubio did not mention Korea specifically, this stance is widely expected to affect countries with which the U.S. holds bilateral trade agreements, including Korea. What remains to be seen is the extent of the changes — whether it would involve revising the existing FTA or a whole new deal to replace it.

Rubio said in an interview on Sunday (local time) that the United States will try to upend the existing conditions with its trading partners because the conditions are "unfair" to the U.S.

"And then from that new baseline of fairness and reciprocity, we will engage, potentially, in bilateral negotiations with countries around the world on new trade arrangements that make sense for both sides — fairness," he said.

He referred to aluminum, steel, semiconductors and cars as "critical" U.S. industries that should be protected.

Trump has already imposed new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum products, including those from Korea, while also planning to levy reciprocal tariffs on countries the U.S. is trading with on April 2.

The Trump administration's move is not new. In 2017 during his first term, Trump demanded revisions to the KORUS FTA while threatening to abolish it completely. This led to revisions to some clauses the following year, which benefited U.S. carmakers.

He took it even further with Mexico and Canada. During his first term, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), formed in 1994, was abolished and replaced by United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2020, which was designed to strengthen its auto industry and support its farmers.

Trade Minister Chung In-kyo, second from right, speaks with U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer, third from left, at the USTR's office in Washington, D.C., Friday (local time). Courtesy of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

From the Korean government's side, trade ministry spokesperson Lee Won-ju downplayed Rubio's remark, saying the secretary did not directly mention the KORUS FTA.

"He said that imposition of the reciprocal tariffs will be followed by negotiations and possibly new arrangements. I see this as nothing more than a hypothetical statement," Lee said. "I don't think it implies the U.S. government's intent for revising or renegotiating its FTA with Korea."

Regarding the extent to which the bilateral FTA will be affected by the U.S. imposition of reciprocal tariffs, experts said that scrapping the existing FTA and negotiating a new one would require an indefinite amount of time due to time-consuming procedures. Instead, they believe the U.S. government would seek to introduce additional agreements with Korea.

"Now, Trump is about to do that with many different countries simultaneously. I doubt Trump will like such time-consuming processes because he doesn't have much time. He must prove his strategies' effectiveness during his four-year term. I assume he might want to touch on signing a new deal outside the FTA framework," said Jang Sang-sik, head of trade trend analysis at the Korea International Trade Association (KITA).

Song Ki-ho, a Seoul-based lawyer specializing in international commerce, echoed Jang's view.

"Will Trump dump the USMCA which is an upgraded version of NAFTA? No, because the USMCA was originally designed to benefit the U.S. Same with our FTA with the U.S. They won't want to rewrite the whole FTA from scratch," Song said.

"The U.S. government will constantly see new demands rising from within through Congress and the mid-term election and will have to keep reflecting those demands to its existing agreements with other countries."