Key US senator hoists beef to top of FTA agenda
Chosun Ilbo | 5 December 2006
Key U.S. Senator Hoists Beef to Top of FTA Agenda
The influential U.S. senator Max Baucus, nicknamed “Mr. Beef”, on Sunday said Korea should completely lift its ban on U.S. beef imports if it wants a free trade agreement with the U.S. The remarks came on the eve of the fifth round of bilateral FTA negotiations at a meeting in Gallatin Gateway near Big Sky Resort in Montana organized by the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce. The Korean and U.S. top FTA negotiators Kim Jong-hoon and Wendy Cutler were there for lunch.
The remarks spell trouble for the FTA negotiations, which run from Monday to Friday in the ski resort, since Baucus is to chair the Senate Finance Committee, a post that exerts powerful influence over Washington’s international trade deals. U.S.
◆ Beef as bone of contention
A prime Montana T-bone steak made a dramatic appearance before luncheon on the day when Baucus sliced into the steak with reporters from Korea watching and repeated several times in Korean, “This is delicious.” The stunt came in protest at Korea’s rejection of two shipments of U.S. beef that, in violation of the new import agreement, contained bone fragments.
The Democrat senator was also instrumental in making Montana, in the heart of the U.S. beef belt, the venue for this round of FTA talks — a none-too-subtle hint that Korea should open its markets. The Korean chief negotiator worried that Korea’s return of the first and second U.S. beef shipments after the ban was lifted would aggravate the atmosphere in the upcoming negotiations.
◆ U.S. trade remedies
Kim in turn highlighted U.S. trade remedies and the textile sector, where little progress has been made so far. The U.S. has been frequently using such trade remedies as anti-dumping duties, compensation duties and safeguards and insists on only discussing safeguards this time. But Seoul says all kinds of trade remedies should be put on the table.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is expected to push demands in the fields of agriculture (opening Korea’s market for sensitive items), intellectual property rights (extending protection of copyright to 70 years after the copyright holder’s death), pharmaceuticals (guarantees of the minimum price of new foreign drugs), and cars (Korea to stop levying tax based on engine displacement).
