1. ECONOMIC ISSUES

Economic growth to put upward pressure on inflation: BOK head [English, CSY]

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2011/06/14/57/0503000000AEN20110614008900320F.HTML

Summary: South Korea is expected to face upward inflationary pressure down the road due to the economy's sustained growth, the country's top central banker said Wednesday.     "Consumer prices are maintaining their upward trend by growing more than 4 percent, and inflation is expected to be under high upward pressure from the demand side," Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo said in a report to lawmakers.   The report comes as the BOK hiked the key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 3.25 percent on Friday, the third rate increase within this year, in a bid to tame inflation. The BOK has raised the benchmark rate in five steps from a record low of 2 percent since July last year.

2. GRAIN & OILSEED ISSUES

Korea Economic Daily released that Korean government has the plan of rice tariffication annulled due to political burden prior to general election and presidential election next year.  However, the government explained that nothing of rice tariffication has been made yet.   (Korean;CSC)

http://www.hankyung.com/news/app/newsview.php?aid=2011061460491

http://www.hankyung.com/news/app/newsview.php?aid=2011061460871

http://www.mdtoday.co.kr/mdtoday/index.html?no=158298

http://www.mifaff.go.kr/gonews/content_view.jsp?newsid=155440980&section_id=e_sec_1

3. MARKETING ISSUES

Korea’s hobbled furniture industry [English, CSY]

High raw material tariffs raise costs for manufacturers, making them less competitive against cheaper imports

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2937586

Summary: Korea’s furniture industry is at bay. Hobbled by listless demand and import tariffs that raise raw materials costs, domestic furniture makers are fighting for their lives while global giants flood the local market, unfettered by tariff-free entry.  Sweden-based Ikea, the world’s largest furniture maker, is seeking a large plot of land for a warehouse store in the Seoul metropolitan area as it seeks to directly enter the Korean market.

Global leader Ikea has gained its status from competitive prices through vertical integration spanning everything from raw material production and design to distribution. But domestic furniture makers say that they cannot even dream of competing on price due to restrictive government regulations.  Korea imposes a high tariff on imported particle board - the material most affordable furniture is made of - that raises raw material prices and undercuts competitiveness.   Most particle board is subject to a tariff of 15.67 percent, composed of a basic duty of 8 percent, plus an additional 7.67 percent anti-dumping tariff the government imposed on particle board from Thailand or Malaysia, because it was deemed a threat to local particle board manufacturers.

4. OTHER MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES

S. Korea to launch new unified quarantine agency, Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency (QIA) [English, CSY]

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2011/06/14/19/0501000000AEN20110614006300320F.HTML

Summary: South Korea will launch a new unified quarantine agency to handle farm and fisheries products in an effort to strengthen the country's ability to protect public health and local industries from animal and plant diseases, the government said Tuesday.  The Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency (QIA), set to start work on Wednesday, aims to prevent a repeat of the recent foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak that forced the government to cull more than 3.47 million pigs and cows at a cost of over 3 trillion won (US$2.77 billion), the farm ministry said.