[Editorial] The Urgency Behind the Doha Agricultural Negotiations

It is frustrating when you are negotiating yet do not have anything to concede, and you want to take charge of the situation yet lack the strength to do so. Such are the circumstances Korea finds itself in at the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations. There is a World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting beginning Tuesday in Hong Kong to review the agenda for DDA and agree on a time schedule, and the main topics of discussion will be agricultural, non-agricultural products, services, and standards.

The most sensitive area will be agriculture. Depending on how things go it could lead to a situation almost as serious as the rice agreement ratification process. Many observers are predicting that the Hong Kong meeting will fail to produce a detailed agreement, but more significant market openings are still just around the corner. Korea belongs to the "G10" group of agriculture importing nations that will find increasingly less room to maneuver in in the rapid pace of free trade. The U.S. and now the European Union have turned around and come out in favor of a trade peak for agriculture products. Korean agriculture will take a direct hit if the peak is set at around 100 percent. Of Korea's 1,452 agriculture items, 142 have high tariffs of over 100 percent. Products such as red pepper, garlic, and sesame are all big income earners for Korean farmers, and will have tariffs of 270, 360, and 630 percent respectively.

Korea's negotiators will have to use all the energy they have to prevent the establishment of a trade peak and to maintain Korea's status as a developing nation. The negotiations will not be easy, so the government needs to be prepared for a worst-case scenario. Everything about the agreement process needs to be kept transparent so as to minimize the social aftermath in Korea, and that will require that the government keep farmers, farmers' groups, and the scholarly community adequately informed about the negotiation process and that it listen to their views. Making sure there is not the same kind of backlash there was after the Uruguay Round will be just as important as what comes out of the current discussions.

The Hankyoreh, 13 December 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]