Today's Date:     Tuesday, January 17, 2012

1. BILATERAL/MULTILATERAL ISSUES

Official Talks on Korea-China Free Trade Agreement Will Not Start Unless Agreement on Sensitive Ag Products is Reached in Advance, Korea Trade Negotiation Representative [Korean, OSY]

http://news.donga.com/3/all/20120112/43280062/1

Summary: Taeho Park, the head of the Korea Trade Negotiation Office said in a press interview on January 12 that official talks between Korea and China will not happen unless both countries reach an agreement in preliminary discussion to exclude sensitive agricultural products from the scope of the FTA.  Mr. Park explained that none of the top 30 Korean agricultural products are price competitive against Chinese products.  As a result, the loss caused by the Korea-China FTA to the local farmers could be as much as 4 times larger than the loss from Korea-U.S. FTA.

Opposition Party raise the possibility of discarding KORUS FTA [Korean: BYK]

http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/01/17/2012011700180.html

Summary: Leaders of the new Consolidated Democratic Party are publically stating that it would discard the KORUS FTA if they win the general election in April.  However, this is not legally possible as the sole right for discarding an agreement with a foreign country is up to the President to decide.  Under the KORUS FTA, any country that wishes to discard the FTA can do so by notifying the other country 180 days prior to the date that it wishes to discard the agreement.  If the opposition party wins the Presidential election in December, it could in theory notify the United States of its intention to discard the agreement and have it discarded by mid 2013.  Even if the ruling party (Grand National Party) were to win the majority of the seats during the general elections in April, it could not stop the President from the opposition party from discarding the agreement.  If this were to happen, the bilateral relationship between Korea and the United States will be aggravated.

2. LIVESTOCK ISSUES

Cattle Prices Plunges – ROKG begins investigation of distortion in beef prices [Korean: BYK]

http://polinews.co.kr/viewnews.html?PageKey=0401&num=140561#

Summary: The Korean government has begun investigation on why the retail beef prices are remaining high, despite the fall in live cattle prices.  It will also reduce the current marketing channel which goes through 5 different steps into a 3 step marketing channel.  The ROKG hopes that this will reduce the gap between live cattle prices and retail prices.  MIFAFF will also cull 200,000 heads of Hanwoo cows in the next 2 years and maintain an appropriate number of inventory by 2013.

New Consolidated Democratic Party Leader Calls for Limiting Beef Imports [Korean: BYK]

http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=100&oid=003&aid=0004294569

Summary: The newly elected leader of the Consolidated Democratic Party, Myung Sook Han, visited the Majang Meat Wholesale Market as her first official schedule.  During her visit, she said that Korea should consider restricting the beef imports in trying to cope with the plunge in live calf prices.

MIFAFF to look at lowering taxes on butcher shop style restaurants [Korean: BYK]

http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=100&oid=003&aid=0004294569

Summary: MIFAFF is consulting with the National Tax Service (NTS) on whether the butcher shop style restaurants can be exempted from the Value Added Tax (VAT).  These type of restaurants boomed during the period 2007-2009 as the butcher shops are exempt from VAT, but as the NTS decided to impose VAT on these restaurants, the number of such restaurants have dropped.  MIFAFF is trying to revive the VAT exemption for restaurants to increase domestic beef sales.

Fifty eight percent of internet users believe in false information put up on portal sites [Korean: BYK]

http://news.donga.com/3/all/20120117/43365207/1

Summary: A citizen group conducted a survey of the portal sites on the ten most common questions being raised in these sites.  According to this survey, 58 percent of the site visitors trusted the false information that was put up on such sites.  Some of the false information put up on such websites were that people can be infected with vCJD by drinking sports drinks, jelly and even by eating vegetables. 

Korea to simplify beef distribution [English, CSY]

http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20120116001004

Summary: Government agencies are looking into possible distortions in beef pricing as hanwoo meat remains expensive despite a plunge in homebred cattle prices.  Beef cattle prices have fallen sharply as a result of an oversupply of cows raised in Korea over the past two years, weighing heavily on cattle breeders.  The ministries of agriculture, home affairs and the nation’s antitrust watchdog are also reviewing ways to curb beef prices by fostering a large distributor run by groups of cattle breeders to simplify the five-stage distribution system to three stages.  Agriculture Minister Suh Kyu-yong said the government was seeking to reduce the portion sold through cattle markets and expand the amount directly traded through groups of livestock farmers.   “We are working with the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, which manages prices at restaurants, to find out if the beef is appropriately priced,” Suh said in a televised interview with cable news channel News Y Monday.

3. OTHER MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES

Kkokkomyeon Sales Exceed 100 Million in Just 5 Months [English, CSY]

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/01/17/2012011701068.html

Full text: Korea Yakult announced on Monday that it has sold 100 million packets of its new Kkokkomyeon instant noodles, which keep their spicy flavor without red hot chili peppers, in just five months of the product hitting the shelves.   Since the popular ramyeon product was lunched on Aug. 2, demand has surged beyond expectations. At the time of its release, Kkokkomyeon was hailed as breaking new ground with its chicken-based spicy soup.  Few believed this would present a serious challenge to the quarter-century market dominance of red hot chili pepper-based noodles in Korea's instant ramyeon market.

4. MIFAFF PRESS RELEASES

►  MIFAFF Vice Minister to visit traditional markets to check the prices for upcoming lunar new year

►  MIFAFF to push for establishing 8 massive environment friendly agricultural suites

►  MIFAFF to introduce sabbatical year for fish farms to increase its productivity

►  National Seed Service publicizes plan for awarding superior seed award