The World Trade Organization (WTO) has officially approved the results of rice negotiations between Korea and China, the United States, and seven other countries, so now all that remains is a ratification vote by the National Assembly. The results of the negotiations include a 10-year deferment on the implementation of tariffs, an increase in import obligations, and the allowance of the market sale of foreign rice. Given that farmers groups were violently opposed to the negotiations on further opening the rice market, ratification will probably not be a smooth process.
Farmers are even more worried for having learned that the government made concessions to China and other countries that allow for quarantine inspections of other products than rice, because it means the importation process has essentially begun. It also confirms the common suspicion that the government conceded other things in order to win the one advantageous term that is the deferment on tariffs. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry says that ahead of the rice negotiations China had been demanding quarantine procedures for apples, pears, and cherries and that the decision on whether to allow importation on those will not be a big problem since it is entirely up to Korea, but no one is going to believe that. The government promised the negotiations would be transparent no matter what happened, but it has lost the public's confidence.
The ratification process will be a painful ordeal but the general interpretation is that if the National Assembly chooses not to ratify the negotiated agreement the result will be that tariffs are inevitable. More so even than the negotiations, the ratification process has to be a time for examining policy and vision for Korean agriculture and the means to implement both. Farmers must be given reason for hope by having there be a meticulous review of policies for preventing further rice market opening from leading to a reduction in farm income and the collapse of the agriculture production base, and for the reconstruction and revival of impoverished farming communities.
The country has poured more than W60 trillion into farming and the agriculture industry since the Uruguay Round and yet has still failed at restructuring. That was the "lost decade." The next ten years has to be thought of as Korean agriculture's last chance.
The Hankyoreh, 13 April 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Ten Years Left for Korean Agriculture |
