US likely to urge Korea to open rice market more
The seventh round of Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations have launched their four-day session in Washington D.C. Korean top envoy Kim Jong-hoon and his US counterpart Wendy Cutler participated in a holistic meeting on the first day.
According to a source, after the holistic meeting, a series of working-level meetings have been held seeking to find a way of narrowing thorny agenda items. In particular, regarding the ISD in the investment section, both sides have seriously talked about the ‘ISD’s indirect acceptance.’ Prior to the seventh round of talks, the two top envoys had showed confidence to make a big breakthrough.
However, an unknown analyst said, “It will be not easy to progress because of the hottest agenda issue, rice.” Regarding opening the Korean rice market, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler said to reporters, “I know the rice agenda item is very sensitive to Korea, but we will urge Seoul to revise its rice market policy.”
In her news briefing near the convention venue, Cutler said, “This item is also high priority for the US.” However, she did not mention any specific date to talk about rice. US beef imports can be a hot issue during the talks as well because Seoul has banned US beef imports after bone fragments were founded.
In a news briefing in Washington, Korean anti-FTA activists urged both sides to quit the talks immediately, before they started an anti-FTA rally, saying, “Current Korea-US FTA talks lack the principles of democracy, fairness, and mutual interest.”
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 / 입력시간: 2007. 02.14. 08:19
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