The Korean Government'S Position And Direction In Identifying The Status Of WTO In Developing China

The South Korean government held the 208th Ministerial Conference on foreign economy in October 25th (2019), and discussed the criteria of WTO member states' request for WTO to reform the status of "developing country". The conference concluded that South Korea was recognized as a developing country by WTO in 1995, and after 1996 joined the OECD, only agriculture and climate change areas maintained the development of Chinese concessions. However, the recent controversy over the status of developing countries may affect the agricultural sector and foreign policy in Korea. The South Korean government still adheres to the principle of protecting the interests of the state and examines the factors affecting the international location, internal and external environment, and economic impact of Korea, so as to fully exchange views with interested countries.

The South Korean government said it would give priority to 3 factors in deciding whether to abandon the status determination of "developing countries".

(1) the international status of South Korea: it has been 25 years since South Korea joined the WTO in 1995. The scale of GDP in South Korea has been upgraded to the twelfth largest in the world, the sixth largest exporter in the world, and the annual average national income exceeds US $30 thousand, which has actually become a developed country. At present, among the WTO164 Member States, the countries that meet the requirements of the G20 countries, the OECD Member States and the annual average national income of more than US $30 thousand are only 9 countries such as the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, Australia and Korea. Compared with the economic status, it seems that Korea is no longer recognized by the international community as a developing country.

(two) the preferential treatment of developing countries to foreign countries: Recently, some WTO developed countries, and even developing member states, have questioned Korea's preference for developing countries and Singapore, Brazil and Taiwan, most of which are similar to Korea's economic scale and international status. Most countries have indicated their willingness to give up the preferential policies of developing countries. Therefore, even if Korea postpones its decision to abandon the status of developing countries, it will not be recognized as a developing country in the future when negotiating with WTO.

(three) the impact and response to South Korea: even if South Korea abandonment of the preferential policies for developing countries, it still needs to take effect when the WTO negotiations come into force. Therefore, before the agreement is reached and the agreement has come into effect, the preferential protection can be maintained according to the original agreement. At present, the agricultural consultation of DDA is in fact a long period of interruption. It is expected that in the future, even if the consultation is resumed, it will take a long time before the agreement is reached. Therefore, South Korea has decided to give up its status as a developing country, and the agricultural sector will still not be affected. There are still plenty of time to study the possible countermeasures that might affect the negotiations.

The conference decided that in the future WTO negotiations, efforts will be made to maintain sensitive agricultural projects such as rice, and to maintain the flexibility of consultation. South Korea will not adhere to the status of developing the country in future consultations. The future direction should be as follows:

(1) in the future agricultural consultation in WTO, we will fully protect sensitive items such as rice and other agricultural sectors in South Korea.

(two) in the future agricultural consultation of WTO, if the Korean agriculture is determined to be affected, it will actively study the compensation countermeasures.

(three) continue to promote the countermeasures to improve the competitiveness of agriculture in South Korea.

In order to strengthen the competitiveness and physique of South Korea's agriculture, the South Korean government will focus on the implementation of priority issues.

Actively support and stabilize the income and operation of farmers: Amendment and implementation of the "agricultural income compensation law". The government of Korea plans to increase the direct payment of rice from 2 trillion and 200 billion won this year to 1 trillion and 400 billion won in the budget of Ming (109), and to stabilize the operation of farmers. It will increase the project of agricultural disaster insurance and improve the disaster insurance system.

We need to expand the demand for domestic agricultural products and strengthen the adjustment of supply and demand functions: strengthen support to set up a local diet and consumption base based on local units, continuously stabilize the prices of major vegetables, and promote the use of self-reliance adjustment requirements of projects, so as to enhance the prices of stable agricultural products.

We should actively foster young people and agricultural successors who can continue the development and competitiveness of Agriculture: we must implement the youth farm subsidy fund system and the farmland bank to support the young farmers' farmland and capital plan, and we will review the expansion of support in the future.

The government of Korea pointed out that the budget for agriculture in the Ming (2020) year was 15 trillion and 300 billion won, the largest increase in the last 10 years (4.4%). In the future, it will also focus on raising agricultural competitiveness and raise the necessary funds, and continue to collect agricultural and expert advice to increase or modify the competitiveness of agriculture. Although the South Korean government has negotiated the FTA process with major countries, all of them have studied the policy of "compensation for the damage caused by the opening of the agricultural market". In the future, they will no longer focus on predicting the potential damage in the future. Instead, they will focus on the "future of investing in agriculture", actively promote agricultural policies, and exchange views with farmers closely. The agricultural sector, government and experts will cooperate fully in the future challenges of agriculture.