US wants separate FTA talks on farm products
Chosun Ilbo | Jun 2, 2006
U.S. Wants Separate FTA Talks on Farm Products
A U.S. demand for separate negotiations on the agricultural sector under a planned free trade agreement with Korea shows how contentious the issue is, the government said Friday. Seoul wanted to combine negotiations on agriculture, manufactured goods and other issues. “That indicates that the US regards opening of the nation’s agricultural market as one of the most contentious issues in the FTA negotiations,” an official with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.
Seoul aims to keep the opening of the agriculture sector to the absolute minimum, even at the expense of concessions on manufactured goods. The first round of FTA negotiations starts on June 5 in Washington.
The U.S. draft differs “significantly” from what Korea has in mind, the chief FTA negotiator Kim Jong-hoon told reporters Friday. There is no mention in the U.S. draft of goods manufactured in the joint-Korean Kaesong industrial Complex in the North, which Seoul wants included in the FTA. The U.S. feels they are made in North Korea and therefore do not qualify for tariff reductions. That issue will become another major bone of contention in the negotiations. “The issue of the Kaesong Industrial Complex is critical and should be dealt with right from the start,” Korea’s chief negotiator said.
Major items in the U.S. draft include opening Korea’s financial market to automatically allow financial derivatives newly developed in the U.S. to be sold here, scrapping customs refunds on exports to the U.S., revising the car taxation system based on engine displacement, and announcing changes in trade regulations 60 days in advance instead of the current 20. Washington also wants Korea to strengthen protection of intellectual property and open its home delivery service market.
