S Korean farm sector to suffer huge damage from US FTA: report
Asia Pulse
S. KOREAN FARM SECTOR TO SUFFER HUGE DAMAGE FROM U.S. FTA: REPORT
Wednesday May 17, 2006
SEOUL, May 17 Asia Pulse - A free trade pact with the United States would deal a hard blow to South Korea’s agricultural sector and cause estimated losses of up to 8.8 trillion won (US$9.39 billion), a report showed Wednesday.
"The estimated losses are based on an assumption that all tariffs are drastically lifted...the local agricultural segment is expected to suffer at least a 5.4-trillion-won loss," showed the report authored by Korea University professor Han Doo-bong.
This worst-case scenario, if realized, would sharply undermine the domestic agricultural sector, which contributed 20 trillion won to the country’s gross domestic product last year, the report said.
The professor said the trade pact with the U.S. would help boost productivity but not bring any great benefits to the sector.
"There are no major export items... and the U.S. tariff rates for farm goods are already low," the report said, forecasting that the country’s exports of agricultural goods to the U.S. would not increase sharply.
In order to minimize any damage or negative impact on the local agricultural sector, the South Korean government announced a set of measures earlier that included a budget of more than 100 trillion won for the sector.
South Korea and the U.S. agreed in February to start the first round of formal negotiations on the free trade pact from June 5-9 in Washington, with the aim of wrapping up the deal by the end of next March. (Yonhap)
