1. BILATERAL/MULTILATERAL ISSUES

Dongwon Group Chairman, Mr. Jaecheol, KIM Was interviewed by Korea Economy Newspaper:

http://news.hankyung.com/

Hankook Economy, November 29, Tuesday

Question: What is your prospective of KORUS FTA:

Ratification is really fortune.  About 80 percent of Korean GDP depends on trade.  It is better to ratify with EU and US prior to China and Japan which will help Korea to fly with both sides wings.  Korea already imports huge amount of agriculture products from U.S.  There must not be products which will be imported  enormously from U.S. which is already exporting as  ‘world’s food storage’.  

Shoe Maker Factory that Moved to China Makes U-Turn to Korea [Korean: BYK]

http://joongang.joinsmsn.com/article/aid/2011/11/30/6428427.html?cloc=olink|article|default

Summary: A local shoe maker that was operating 4 production lines in China and exporting around 120,000 pairs of sports shoes to the United States and EU has moved 2 of the production lines in China back to Korea.  Such move was made as it was going to be more competitive to produce the shoes in Korea and receive the duty reduction coming from the KORUS FTA than to produce it in China and export it to the United States.  This company has increased the number of employees in Korea from 20 to 60 employees.  4 U.S. shoe companies that are among the 10 largest shoe producers in the world have visited this company since the KORUS FTA passed the U.S. congress on November 12^th.

Lawyer Kiho Song asserts that the U.S. KORUS FTA implementation bill is a violation of the FTA [Korean: BYK]

http://www.newscham.net/news/view.php?board=news&nid=64149

Summary: Song asserted that Article 102 of the U.S. implementation law for the KORUS FTA agreement states that anything in the KORUS FTA agreement that is in violation of the U.S. laws is invalid.  He argued that signing a FTA agreement means that both countries would change their own respective laws to meet the FTA agreement and therefore Article 102 of the U.S. implementation law itself was a violation of the KORUS FTA agreement.

2. LIVESTOCK ISSUES

False rumors spread in twitter that there was a death caused by vCJD….although it has nothing to do with beef [Korean: BYK]

http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/11/30/2011113000328.html

Summary: A lot of false rumors spread through the SNS that twisted the story about a patient passing away due to iCJD, by connecting this incident with vCJD and linking it with U.S. beef.  Some of the false rumors that are spreading through SNS are; “A 50 year old woman passed away from human mad cow disease symptoms.”  “There are already 25 new vCJD patients in Korea in 2011 alone.”  “Please flee to a country where there is no U.S. beef.”  “You folks out there that asserted that it was false rumors about BSE!  Do you still think so?  This is only the beginning! This is how scary it is!”  There was one SNS that was surveying “Do you think U.S. beef is safe from BSE?”  There were some people that argued that this case was not related to vCJD and called those people that were spreading the false rumors as stupid people.

Opposition after opposition…beef, FTA and 4 river project [Korean: BYK]

http://news.donga.com/3/all/20111129/42234930/1

Summary:  This column points out the false rational hidden behind the arguments being made by people opposing the FTA, 4 river projects and U.S. beef.  It compares how a lot of the arguments being made by the protestors are similar to the propaganda of North Korea.  The column quotes Late President Noh Moo Hyun’s words where the late President admits that if we join WTO and OECD that this country would lose its economic sovereignty turned out to be wrong.  It also criticizes the Democratic Labor Party that is receiving support from the labor unions when their members are the ones that will benefit if Korean exports to the United States increases.

Domestic pork prices begin to increase again…due to Kimchi Making Season [Korean: BYK]

http://news.kbs.co.kr/economic/2011/11/29/2395971.html

Summary:  Domestic pork prices that had been stable for some time is now going up again.  The reason for increases in pork prices is due to the increased demand spurred by the boiled pork dish (Bohssam) that Koreans enjoy with their newly made winter kimchi.

3.  MARKETING ISSUES

Shinan-goon Re-establishes Its Peanut Industry [Korean, OSY]

http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/economy/2011/11/30/0318000000AKR20111130083300054.HTML

Summary: Shinan-goon announced on November 30 that a total of 27 tons of peanuts harvested in the province this year got sold out.  Shinan-goon, located along the south-west sea of the Korean peninsula, was the main producing region of peanuts in the past before the local market was dominated by imported products.  Peanut farms were mostly in many islands, including Jaeun island, in the province.  Jaeun island is about the only place that still grow peanuts in the province.  The 27 tons of peanuts were from 11 ha of peanut farms in the island and were marketed under “Jaeun Peanuts”, a brand name developed under the financial support of the province.  Total sales value of the peanuts was 320 million won this year.  Shinan-goon plans to further promote peanut industry in the province in the coming year.  The province expects that the support will increase the acreage to as much as 50 ha next year.  

Lotte Mart Opens New Stores in China and Indonesia [Korean, OSY]

http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/economy/2011/11/29/0318000000AKR20111129049600003.HTML

Summary: Lotte Mart, the third largest hypermarket store chain in Korea, announced that it opened one new store each in China and Indonesia on November 30.  Total number of Lotte Mart stores in foreign countries increased to 116 with the new stores, 88 of them in China and 26 in Indonesia.

4.  MIFAFF PRESS RELEASES

► MIFAFF runs into problems in fostering local industry, due to conflict of interest among parties involved in such projects.

► December is the month when there is the highest number of fishing boat accidents

► MIFAFF releases list of people that received direct payment for rice production

► MIFAFF holds Korean Fruit Export from Nov 30 to Dec 2 at aT

► MIFAFF introduces apartment style fish farms.