Washington Likely to Relate Beef Market with Korea-US FTA
For Korea and US the Free Trade Agreement is very significant. Especially for the US, South Korea, the world's 11th-largest economy, is a big market for financial services, information and technology (IT), and automobiles.
Concerning opening Korea’s beef market, one of the stickiest issues between the two countries, top US FTA envoy Wendy Cutler reconfirmed that the US will tie the Korean import beef market with the FTA. She said, “I have notified them that without enough opening of the import beef market, there will be no FTA with us.”
During a telephone call Cutler said, “There was significant progress in the sixth round of talks, and we are trying to negotiate the agenda on opening the import beef market prior to the seventh round of talks.” The US Congress has made its demands to Korean Ambassador to the US Lee Tae Shik to open the Korean beef market more, arguing, “It is regretful that the Korean government has forbidden US beef to be imported only because of a bit of bone chip.”
However, the Korean agricultural minister takes a rigid stance on it, saying, “The matter of inspecting imported beef is closely related to public health and welfare, it can’t be on the agenda of the FTA.” Cutler stressed, “Without US beef in the Korean market, there will be no FTA between Korea and the United States,” adding, “We want to sit down with our Korean counterparts and discuss the matter.”
She also said, “In the sixth round of the FTA talks, we made some progress. No breakthroughs were made in sticky sectors, but there was progress on certain issues such as environment and others. And the seventh round will be held next month in the US.” Regarding the question “How many more talks will be needed?” Cutler replied, “We both believe that this upcoming seventh round will be the final one, but in case, we will talk about it in the seventh round of talks.”
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 / 입력시간: 2007. 01.24. 08:00
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