FAS/Seoul Monitoring of Media Reporting on Agricultural Issues
Today's Date: Thursday February 24, 2011
For Coverage: February 23 - 24, 2011
1. BILATERAL/MULTILATERAL ISSUES
DDA talks that can affect S. Korea's farm sector make headway [English, CSY]
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2011/02/23/0502000000AEN20110223012600320.HTML
Summary: The long-delayed Doha Development Agenda (DDA) that can affect South Korea's farming and fisheries sector made progress, raising the chances of an agreement being reached this year, a government official said Wednesday. In a news briefing, Kim Jong-jin, deputy minister for agricultural trade, said headway was made at the Davos Forum held in late January, with countries calling on the World Trade Organization (WTO) to release a detailed blueprint outlining cuts in tariffs and subsidies by April so that a formal pact could be ironed out by July.
National Assembly targeting March 9th as the date for voting on Korea-EU FTA [Korean: BYK]
http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=100&oid=001&aid=0004928205
Summary: The National Assembly is targeting March 9th as the date that it will vote on ratifying the Korea-EU FTA. Both ruling and opposition parties have agreed to discuss this at the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Unification on March 3. The ruling party plans to send it over to the Standing committee on legal affairs for its review on March 7-8, 2011. Afterwards, it will submit the FTA bill to the general floor for voting. However, the opposition party is stating that it would not have sufficient time to review the bill during this session and that it probably will have to be put off until the next session to allow for more intensive review.
2. ECONOMIC ISSUES
Yoon issues new inflation warning on oil price rise [English, CSY]
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2932662
Summary: Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun yesterday warned that surging inflation could reduce global demand and slow Korea’s economic recovery as he urged measures to stabilize prices. The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said it is considering the purchase of 550,000 tons of wheat flour, beans and corn through forward contracts to deal with rising international prices. “Bad grain harvests caused by unusual weather conditions and increased demand in emerging market countries, including China and India, have resulted in continuous rises in international grain prices,” an Agriculture Ministry official said. The ministry is considering procuring 250,000 tons of wheat flour, 250,000 tons of corn and 50,000 tons of beans, which account for 12 percent of the country’s annual consumption, through forward contracts with American grain producers.
3. GRAIN & OILSEED ISSUES
The information in this report was compiled by the Agricultural Trade Office (ATO) at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea. The press summaries contained herein do NOT reflect USDA, the U.S. Embassy, or other U.S. government agency official policy or view point. U.S. food exporters can learn more about market opportunities in South Korea by reviewing ATO Seoul’s Exporter Guide and other reports available at www.fas.usda.gov by clicking on “attaché reports”.
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