Agriculture and Textiles Sample Clauses

Agriculture and Textiles. One of the most critical issues in the U.S.-Korea FTA negotiations was agriculture. The United States has been demanding removal of tariffs and non-tariff barriers in agricultural trade in various bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations, and this negotiation stance was also expected in the U.S.-Korea FTA negotiations. The agriculture issue, which had been the main deterrent keeping Japan and Switzerland from entering into an FTA with the United States, was no less critical for Korea, where opening the agricultural market was expected to cause critical injury to its agricultural sector. The success of the U.S.-Korea FTA had depended largely on the outcome of the negotiations in this area.

Agriculture and Textiles. One of the most critical issues in the U.S.-Korea FTA negotiations was agriculture. The United States has been demanding removal of tariffs and non-tariff barriers in agricultural trade in various bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations, and this negotiation stance was also expected in the U.S.-Korea FTA negotiations. The agriculture issue, which had been the main deterrent keeping Japan and Switzerland from entering into an FTA with the United States, was no less critical for Korea, where opening the agricultural market was expected to cause critical injury to its 88 See supra notes 15 and 64. 89 Other commentators also pointed out that to have an FTA with Korea, the United States would have to set aside long-standing trade barriers to Korean exports and resolve visa issues in return for the gains from the areas of U.S. interest, such as agriculture. See, e.g., Xxxxxxx X. Xxxxxx et al., Negotiating the Korea – United States Free Trade Agreement 14 (Xxxxxxxx Inst. for Int’l Econ., Policy Brief No. PB06-4, 2006) [hereinafter Xxxxxx, Negotiating], xxxx://xxx.xxxx.xxx/publications/interstitial.cfm?ResearchID=639 (“If the United States wants an FTA with Korea, it will have to put long-standing US barriers to Korean exports on the negotiating table and resolve vexing problems regarding access to the US visa waiver program.”). However, Korea agreed to the FTA without attaining most of these key interests. agricultural sector. The success of the U.S.-Korea FTA had depended largely on the outcome of the negotiations in this area. The Korean agriculture sector in most product groups is significantly less competitive than its U.S. counterpart. The 2001 USITC report estimated that the export of U.S. agricultural goods to Korea would increase by 200% once the FTA comes into effect.90 Research by the Korea Rural Economic Institute (XXXX) also estimated that Korean production would decrease by US$20-23 billion, and that 130,000 to 140,000 jobs would be lost in the agricultural sector.91 Opening up the agriculture sector goes directly to the question of the very survival of Korean agriculture. The expected job losses, mounting to the hundreds of thousands, could not only further aggravate the economic polarization problem discussed in the preceding section, but also cause massive desertion of agricultural areas. In turn, this would lead to serious social, environmental, and economic problems for Korea, which maintained the position that effective relief for the aff...