South Korea ratifies rice trade pact

By Choe Sang-Hun
International Herald Tribune

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2005
SEOUL South Korea's Parliament ratified a trade pact on Wednesday
that opens the domestic market wider to rice imports, brushing aside
strong opposition from the nation's farmers.

The move pushed through by the administration of President Roh Moo
Hyun was aimed at underscoring South Korea's commitment to global
free trade but is sure to further anger the nation's 3.5 million
farmers, whose numbers have been steadily decreasing in this rapidly
industrializing country of 48 million people.

Farmers rallied near the National Assembly to express their anger at
the move, while police blocked highways leading into Seoul to prevent
others from bringing their protests to the capital.

The vote came amid chaotic scenes in the assembly as members of the
minority Democratic Labor Party, which opposed the bill, occupied the
speaker's podium in an effort to block voting.

Lawmakers from the governing Uri Party scuffled with the opposition
members before pushing them aside and going ahead with the vote. The
bill was approved 139 to 61, with 23 abstentions.

Last week, leaders of 21 Pacific Rim economies urged the European
Union to allow greater access to its farm markets in order to rescue
stalled free trade talks that are scheduled for mid-December in Hong
Kong.

But their call was undermined somewhat by complaints that countries
in the region, notably Japan and South Korea, also shield their farm
markets from imports while thriving on exporting their industrial goods.

The voting on the South Korean bill had been delayed repeatedly over
the past year as farmers staged violent protests demanding a new
trade deal that would better protect the domestic rice market.

Under a pact signed last year with the United States, China, Thailand
and six other rice-producing countries, South Korea agreed to
gradually double its rice imports to 8 percent of domestic
consumption by 2014 from 4 percent now.

The deal, which was sponsored by the World Trade Organization, allows
the government a 10-year grace period after 2014 before import
restrictions on rice are lifted. But the deal has been widely opposed
by farmers, who feel that their livelihoods are being threatened. Two
farmers committed suicide this month in protest.

"If South Korea doesn't ratify the rice deal it promised to the
international community, its standing, image and credibility will be
undermined," Ban Ki Moon, the minister of foreign affairs and trade,
said this week.

In a rally Wednesday near the National Assembly, 200 farmers burned a
model of the legislature. On highways south of Seoul, hundreds of
farmers burned stacks of rice, straw and tires when police blocked
them from heading for Seoul.

"Today is the day the National Assembly of South Korea gave a death
sentence to 3.5 million farmers," said Kwon Young Ghil, leader of the
Democratic Labor Party.

South Korean farmers are expected to take their protests to Hong Kong
when the WTO meeting starts on Dec. 13, said officials at the Korea
Peasants' League. The Hong Kong talks are crucial to saving a global
trade pact under the WTO.