Farmers鈥 ire as S. Korea set to open rice market
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SOUTH Korea will scrap caps on rice imports from 2015, potentially opening up the politically sensitive market to more imports from countries such as China and the United States, in a move that has been fiercely resisted by many farmers.
Seoul said steep tariffs would be used to protect its farmers. While this is likely to prevent a short-term surge in imports, farmers are worried that it could open the floodgates to foreign sales down the line in a country where locally grown rice has traditionally enjoyed almost mythical status.
Under pressure to open its markets, Seoul has little room for maneuver over the issue with a 20-year-old World Trade Organization agreement on import quotas expiring at the end of 2014.
“The rice market will be protected by setting maximum tariffs in accord with the WTO,” agriculture minister Lee Dong-phil said in a statement.
At a news briefing, he added that this level would be from 300-500 percent. That would bring prices for imported rice in line with local grain.
Around 30 farmers gathered in front of a government complex in Seoul to protest against the move, with an official from left-wing farmers’ group the Korean Peasants League saying farmers should have been consulted more thoroughly.
The government has held a series of discussions with the public on plans for its rice policy and some farmers have accepted that change was inevitable, instead focusing on the exact level of tariffs.
“We consider the switch to the tariff scheme for rice unavoidable,” said Son Jae-beom, secretary-general of the Korean Advanced Farmers Federation.
Under the current WTO agreement, South Korea must buy exactly 408,700 tons of foreign rice this year, or 9 percent of its demand. The amount that must be purchased abroad has gradually increased from 51,000 tons in 1995. Under the new scheme, Seoul would still be required to import at least 408,700 tons a year, with the higher tariff rate charged on any imports beyond that, ministry officials said.
China usually accounts for at least half of total imports, the United States for 20-30 percent and Thailand for 10-20 percent, government data show.
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