The National Farmers' Federation issued a statement on the 14th, criticizing the joint statement (joint factsheet) released on the same day from the Korea-U.S. summit meeting as essentially accepting the demands of the United States.
According to the factsheet directly announced by President Lee Jae-myung on the same day, Korea will strengthen cooperation with the United States to discuss non-tariff barriers affecting the trade of food and agricultural products. The agreement aims to ensure the implementation of existing commitments such as agreements and protocols between the two countries and to resolve delays in response to U.S. application requests to streamline the regulatory approval process for agricultural biotechnology products. Additionally, it was decided to establish and operate a "U.S. Desk" dedicated to handling quarantine-related requests for U.S. horticultural crops.
The National Farmers' Federation argued, "The agreement between Korea and the United States essentially aims to resolve non-tariff barriers affecting food and agricultural trade," and "particularly, the establishment of the U.S. Desk is abandoning quarantine sovereignty, the last bastion to protect our agriculture, and surrendering food sovereignty."
They claimed, "Initially, the United States had been demanding the abolition of regulations on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and animal and plant quarantine through the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's 'National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE),' labeling them as 'trade barriers.' Ultimately, contrary to previous announcements that additional opening would be prevented considering the political sensitivity of the agricultural and livestock industries, the agreement essentially accepted the demands of the United States."
The National Farmers' Federation stated, "We cannot accept this negotiation that abandons even the last bastion to protect the agriculture and food of this land," and "the reason farmers have been struggling regardless of the regime is because all regimes have not deviated from the framework of opening agricultural policies that destroy agriculture and kill farmers."
They concluded, "If the current government cannot break away from the existing framework, farmers will struggle again," and "strongly condemns the government for harming national interests through humiliating negotiations."
Reporter Lee Jae-hyo hyo@nongmin.com