Farmers Disrupt FTA Hearing
Korea Times
Farmers Disrupt FTA Hearing
By Christopher Carpenter, Staff Reporter
27 June 2006
Angry farmers and activists effectively disrupted a public hearing on ongoing free trade agreement (FTA) talks between Korea and the United States, Tuesday, leading to their suspension.
Four hundred farmers and anti-free trade activists staged a sit-in protest at the site of the hearing, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
This is the second time an FTA public hearing has been suspended. On Feb. 2, a government-organized public hearing was finally abandoned after protests from some 100 farmers. It wasn’t immediately known whether Tuesday’s session will be resumed.
Korea and the United States began formal talks this month, and a second round of negotiations will be held from July 10 in Seoul. Both sides hope to wrap up the negotiations by March next year to ratify the deal before U.S. President George W. Bush’s power to handle a free trade accord without congressional approval expires in July 2007.
In an opening speech, Kim Jong-hoon, Seoul’s top negotiator for the free trade talks, said an agreement with the U.S. would allow South Korea to nurture value-added industries through market opening and competition.
But Kim’s speech was briefly interrupted when some farmers approached the podium, accusing the negotiator of playing a key role in opening the nation’s rice market. During the brief disruption, minor scuffles and name calling erupted between the farmers and government officials.
During the one-day session, government officials had planned to gather opinions from companies and individuals in industry sectors, including manufacturing, services, agriculture and others such as intellectual property rights, the ministry said in a statement.
The agricultural sector, especially rice, is one of the most difficult items on the negotiating table for the South Korea-U.S. free trade talks, experts said.
South Korean farmers, about half of whom grow rice, have protested against the opening of the nation’s rice market. However, U.S. trade officials have urged the South Korean government to drop its protective policy on rice.
