Protests by farmers are going on around the country. The protests were detonated when the National Assembly's trade committee voted to ratify an international ride agreement, but they were the result of deep distrust towards the government's handling of agriculture.
It has been more than ten years since the pain caused by the Uruguay Round negotiations, but the rice industry remains in the same situation with little that has changed. The government did work to get a ten-year deferment on tariffs in exchange for increasing required rice imports, but farmers are upset because their views were not allowed to influence the results. The government has no clear outlook on what the rice industry should look like in the future.
The recent heavy decline in the price of rice has furthered the distrust and angered farmers. One can surely sympathize with how they must feel as they watch prices fall while the rice piles high. Even if you recognize the inevitability of ratifying the agreement, the government is still largely at fault for hastily moving to apply market principles. The government stopped state rice purchases this year and began a program of "public reserves" where rice is purchased at market price, but the result was that the market price collapsed. The government's prediction is that the price would drop between 5 and 6 percent, but that was way off.
Now that it has become clear the government was careless in hurrying to purchase rice at the market price, the next order of things should be for it to hurry to find ways to stabilize the price. If it would be difficult to have state rice purchasing again, then it should change its approach and temporarily purchase rice for its reserves at a target price instead of market price, making it more possible to predict what prices will be. Then it should present the country with a convincing vision of what the rice industry should look like. Farmers, for their part, will not find themselves a solution by forever ignoring the harsh conditions of international trade. Policymakers need to approach by doing what they can for farmers' circumstances even under restrictive conditions, and farmers right now need a cool-headed attitude that seeks to find the best plan given the reality the face.
The Hankyoreh, 31 October 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Consider Purchasing Rice at Target Prices |
