SK-US free trade deal may open 10 out of 18 types of rice products
The Hankyoreh | 15 February 2007
S.K.-U.S. free trade deal may open 10 out of 18 types of rice products
Negotiators say they are mulling concessions on rice market to protect other areas
Contrary to its long-standing assertion that rice will be excluded from a free trade agreement (FTA) with the U.S., South Korea’s government is reviewing measures to open some less sensitive rice products, sources said.
On February 14, the third day into the seventh round of talks in Washington, a Seoul negotiator said, "We have plans to exclude only eight less sensitive rice items as our final concession in negotiations, as long as the U.S. side recognizes the sensitivity of the rice issue [for the local market]."
Under the Harmonized System Code of agricultural product categorization, which both sides have agreed to use for negotiation purposes, there are 18 different kinds of rice products. Seoul intends to open the market on 10 of these items.
This decision is in line with what Finance Minister Kwon O-kyu told lawmakers last week when asked where the Korean negotiating team should draw their "Maginot line." Kwon responded by suggesting the Korean team would open the market on eight different items of "less sensitive" rice products.
South Korea is allowed to delay the removal of tariffs on a total of 16 kinds of rice products in any trade negotiations until 2014, as stipulated by the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round.
"The government has dealt with the 16 types of rice as a total package in past trade negotiations," an industry expert said. "If the government essentially says that ten of these 16 types are ’not really rice,’ to be worth protecting it is tantamount to the government breaking its promise to keep Korea’s agricultural market out of a free trade pact."
An Agriculture Ministry official said on condition of anonymity, "There are some kinds of rice commodities whose opening would not have a significant effect on the local market...Is it possible to make a compromise in some parts to keep other sensitive areas such as fruits and vegetables out of negotiation?"
However, an expert said that "given the already granted World Trade Organization’s [list of Korea’s exclusions] on rice products, if Korea opens its market further only to the U.S., it could be in violation of its obligation with the WTO’s 149 member states."
