South Korea’s agriculture minister said on Tuesday that the ministry is mulling ways to protect local farmers in preparation for a possible opening of the Korean rice market.

“We are now under high pressure to open up the (rice) market,” Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs Minister Lee Dong-phil said at a press meeting, adding that a decision will be reached in June.

The announcement came on the same day that Korea and Canada finally signed a long-delayed free-trade deal.

The two countries initially launched free trade talks in 2005, but failed to reach a conclusion due to trade disputes, such as Korea’s import ban on Canadian beef and the opening of agricultural and livestock products to Canada.

One major sticking point has been the agricultural industry, particularly beef producers, with Korea having a 40 percent tariff on imported beef. Some fear that if removed, the Korean market would be flooded with imported beef.

Under the FTA agreement, Korea will gradually phase out tariffs on Canadian fresh, chilled or frozen beef over 15 years in the same category. But several items, such as rice, are exempted from market liberalization.

Under the Uruguay Round trade agreement that took effect in 1995, Korea was allowed to put off liberalizing its rice market until 2004 in exchange for importing up to 4 percent of its annual rice consumption. The agreement was extended for another 10 years by a later agreement, in which the country agreed to expand its import quota to 7.96 percent of total consumption.

Now that the extension is due to expire this year, Korea must notify the World Trade Organization by September of whether it will open its rice market, according to Lee.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)