TWN Info Service on Free Trade Agreements

19 July 2006


US FTA May Hit Rice Tariffs

Malaysia may be asked for lower rice tariffs since the USA is even asking South Korea for it (where rice farmers are very strongly protected) according to report in which the Assistant USTR Wendy Cutler (Chief Negotiator for Korea-USFTA) has said that ‘it's no secret that we will seek rice market access under this negotiations’, (from http://www.kfhr.org/board/view.php?id=eng_report&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=111 )

South Korean agricultural economists are also concerned about the possible impact of a South Korea-USFTA:

”South Korea’s academic and civic organizations have raised increasingly strong objection to the free trade agreement (FTA) with the U.S., ahead of the second round of negotiations on the pact due to start in Seoul on July 10.

Forty-five agricultural economists, including Kim Seong-hun, president of Sangji University, Gwon Yeong-geun, director of an institute of farming and fishery studies, and Prof. Yun Seok-won of Chung-Ang University, urged the government in a July 5 statement to disclose the drafts and results of the first round of official FTA negotiations with the U.S., which concluded in early June.

They also said the government should stop further negotiations with the U.S., calling agriculture not simply a problem related to farm production. Instead, they said, it is closely connected not only with intellectual property rights and quarantine, but also with health, the environment, and investment. They further warned that the entire population of South Korea would greatly suffer from an FTA with the U.S.

"So far, we agricultural economists have never expressed our collective opinion over international negotiations related to agriculture, such as the Doha Development Agenda. We decided, however, that the FTA with the United States threatens Korean people’s livelihood more than any other agreement."

Apart from the joint statement, about 170 economists, including Byeon Hyeong-yun, director of the Seoul Institute of Social and Economic Studies, Lee Byeong-cheon, director of the Participatory Society Research Center, and Lee Jeong-u, former chief presidential secretary for national policy, criticized the FTA in a statement released the same day.

"The government insists groundlessly that the nation can expand its power and overcome the income gap by signing the FTA with the U.S. The government’s plan to develop industries is ambiguous and reckless. It should stop negotiations [on an agreement] that would ruin all public services, such as health, education, and communications by [being dominated by the] U.S.-style system," their statement stressed.

Consumer groups such as the Korea Consumers’ Cooperative Federation and civic organizations like the Korea Women’s Associations United (KWAU) held a joint press conference, also on July 5, urging the government to stop FTA negotiations. Meanwhile, a pan-national movement against the South Korea-U.S. FTA demanded the resignation of Vice Minister of the Government Information Agency Kim Chang-ho, who criticized a Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) TV program which examined the FTA.

A joint committee of professors and academic organizations and trade unions of public sectors will hold a press conference today to call for an end to the South Korea-U.S. FTA negotiations.”
From The Hankyoreh newspaper (http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/139368.html"http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/139368.html )



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