1. BILATERAL/MULTILATERAL ISSUES

Korea-US FTA  [English, CSY]

US beef-market opening pressure to spoil the deal

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2011/05/137_87098.html

Summary: Following the ratification of the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement, Korea will be linked to the world's largest trading bloc in July. However, the Korea-U.S. FTA will face rough sailing at the National Assembly. With crucial parliamentary and presidential elections, the opposition parties will seek an alliance to block the ratification. The anti-KORUS deal is one of the rallying points which will put both the radical, progressive and liberal opposition parties under one roof.

The Obama Administration should take Korea’s skeptical domestic factors into account for the ratification. Opposition lawmakers suspect that Washington will surely ask Korea to open the domestic beef market wider following the ratification.  Kim Jin-pyo, the new chairman of the policy affairs committee of the first opposition Democratic Party, said the KORUS deal has become disadvantageous to Korea because of Seoul’s additional concessions through the renegotiation of the deal. His remark indicates how the DP will cope with the ratification process.

GNP, Blue House stress urgency of passing FTA [English, CSY]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2936289

Summary: The ruling Grand National Party and the Blue House increasingly raised their voices yesterday to stress that Korea’s legislature should approve the long-pending Korea-U.S. free trade agreement before August.  “Those who oppose the Korea-U.S. FTA are the main culprits behind the failing livelihood economy,” GNP Representative Cha Myung-jin said yesterday at the party’s emergency council meeting. “The motion to ratify the FTA is a true effort to revive the livelihood economy.”  He also said the FTA with the United States will increase jobs and raise resources for welfare programs. “The automotive industry even welcomed it,” he said. “If we insist on renegotiations over and over again, it may get approved when the era of automobiles is over.”

2. LIVESTOCK ISSUES

Korea is biggest U.S. beef importer [English, CSY]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2936225

Summary: Korea was the largest importer of U.S. beef in March for the second straight month, as the supply of local beef plunged after foot-and-mouth disease hit the country late last year, a government report showed yesterday.  Korea imported 28,875 tons of U.S. beef in March, more than a three-fold increase from one year before and a 53 percent jump from the previous month, according to the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The ministry cited the latest data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Korea’s imports accounted for 26 percent of the U.S. beef shipped overseas in that month, outstripping the countries that have previously been top destinations for U.S. meat, including Mexico, Japan and Canada.

S. Korea becomes no. 1 importer of U.S. beef [English, CSY]

The U.S. will seek to further expand exports following implementation of the KORUS FTA

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/478144.html

Summary: It has emerged that South Korea was the world’s biggest importer of U.S. beef in the first quarter of 2011.  Data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Meat Export Federation show that total beef exports in Q1 of this year amounted to 209,048 tons, a 33 percent increase on the 156,947 tons imported during the same period last year. Of this total, South Korea imported 46,739 tons, representing an increase of around three times that of Q1 of 2010. The USDA pointed to the decrease in South Korean domestic meat supply following the recent foot and mouth disease break as resulting in a steep increase in imports of U.S. beef to Korea.

South Korea’s leap in U.S. beef consumption has sent it straight to first place among U.S. beef importing countries worldwide, after ranking third behind Mexico and Canada. In Q1 of 2011, around 22.4 percent of all U.S. beef exported went to Korea (the figure for the corresponding period last year was 10.6 percent). In monetary terms, South Korea spent $214.81 million (233 billion won) on U.S. beef imports. The U.S. share of South Korea’s beef import market, meanwhile, stood at 38 percent, a sharp increase over the 30.5 percent figure for Q1 of 2010.