Let’s compare with the case of China and United States. Countless of manufacturers are making products in China much cheaper than in the United States. The customers in the United States are enjoying cheap products, and ideally the workers who used to work in factories should change their job to others with higher salaries. However, the real situation is that many of them cannot find a job. Now, people are complaining the Chinese currencies are too cheap which make their labor costs too low that companies do not want to move back to the United States. This is exactly what South Korean is worrying.

Besides the problem of losing jobs, a country just cannot depend too much on importing their major commodity. Rice is what Korean eating everyday. Depending too much on foreign rice imports will end up frustrating their living because of the changing in prices. Consider the Unite States’ dependency of gasoline from foreign countries. The frustration of gasoline has put the stock price in a roll costal. In addition, the rice from the United States may not be always cheap. For example, scientists are working on the use of ethanol as an alternative of gasoline. If the use of ethanol was adopted, crops price will dramatically increase in the United States. Thus, it may not be a good idea to depend on foreign imports for their major commodity.

So, the South Korea will never give free trade on rice?

The answer is no. In the current circumstance, it may not have any breakthrough on the free trade on rice. However, nothing is impossible in the future. As the economy is growing, people with better education would rather work in office than farm in the fields. According to data, the average age of the rice farmers reach around 60 because less young people are getting in the rice farming industry. Also, more and more parents are cheering their children to study harder in order to move away from fields. Since less people will work as rice farmers, for the next coming generation, people may have to consider importing rice from other countries or adopting a more efficient way to farm with less people.

Sources:

International Hearald Tribune

http://www.iht.com/…

Ramstad, Evan. “U.S.-South Korean Trade Talks May turn on Beef, Rice Import” The Wall Street Journal 30 March 2007: A7

Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/…

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