ISDS Case Map
agriculture | farmers | food
plus livestock, forestry, etc
South Korea's agriculture minister said Thursday that the country will not include deals on the liberalization of rice and beef imports in the agenda of upcoming free trade talks with the United States.
The United States and Colombia are close to a free trade agreement after nearly two years of talks and a push last week by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a top U.S. trade official said on Wednesday.
The US inflexibility over Colombia's most sensitive issues characterizes Tuesday the resumption of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) talks, which could be the last round between the two nations.
Some 2,000 South Korean farmers, movie-makers and anti-US activists staged a candlelight protest Friday against free trade negotiations with the United States.
With the government's recent efforts to sign a free trade agreement with the United States drawing intense opposition from farmers here, a top Korean government official said the trade negotiators would try to exempt rice from the economic pact.
Ecuadorian Foreign Affaire Minister Jorge Illingworth asserted that a Free Trade Agreement with the US would basically depend on a favorable agriculture deal.
"Farmers and ranchers will be invited to take part in negotiations from the outset," a Korean agricultural ministry official said.
South Korea's rice industry could suffer a significant drop in earnings and production if the country signs a free trade pact with the United States, even if rice is excluded from the deal, a report said Wednesday.
US sorghum has been sold to Morocco for the first time in six years, a testament that the US-Morocco Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is working.
Improving the quality of locally grown agricultural products will be a key government goal this year as more imports are expected to be sold on the South Korean market, the country's agriculture minister said Monday.
