Yonhap

S. KOREAN ISLAND URGES US NEGOTIATORS TO REMOVE ORANGES FROM FTA

Monday October 23, 2006

SEOGWIPO, South Korea, Oct 23 Asia Pulse — As the host of ongoing free trade talks with the United States, the South Korean island of Jeju appealed on Monday for Washington’s negotiators to exclude oranges from a bilateral trade pact that is being planned.

Tangerine groves abound in the southern half of the island, serving as its No. 1 cash crop among fruit with 86 per cent of its farming households engaging in this business.
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"Dear chief negotiator Wendy Cutler, I earnestly ask you to exclude tangerines from negotiating lists in the free trade talks," said Jeju Governor Kim Tae-hwan in a meeting with Cutler and her South Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-hoon.

Cutler did not immediately respond to the appeal.

Currently, South Korea imposes a 50 per cent tariff on U.S. oranges. If a pact is signed, South Korea is likely to be required to phase out the tariff within five years, the Jeju provincial government said in a statement.

Hit by a flood of cheap oranges from the U.S., the island expects to lose 2 trillion won (US$2.2 billion) in lost tangerine production, according to the statement.