President-elect Lee Myung-bak speaks during a meeting with the leaders of 40 associations in the agricultural and fishing industries at his office in Seoul, Monday. / Korea Times

By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter

President-elect Lee Myung-bak Monday called on farmers and fishermen to upgrade themselves to effectively deal with the era of the free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States.

``The countryside should push forward making the farming industry develop into a second or third industry from its long-standing position as a first industry,'' Lee said during his meeting with leaders of 40 associations of the agricultural and fishing industries at his office in Seoul Monday.

He said his transition team is mapping out effective ways to minimize damage from an effectuation of the bilateral trade accord with Washington for farmers and fishermen.

The meeting was arranged several weeks after farming associations criticized the next President for neglecting his electoral campaign pledge for ``unveiling countermeasures against the Korea-U.S. FTA before parliamentary ratification.''

Promising compensation from expected some trillion won damages, he stressed that the coming government will take the initiative in strengthening global competitiveness of the first industry.

Lee vowed to bolster the agriculture and fisheries industries by upgrading their standard and maintaining the number of 3.5 million farmers and fishermen.

Free trade deals are an international trend that cannot be avoided, and it will eventually be beneficial to Korea, Lee added.

In a bid to pave the way for the U.S. Congress to ratify the Seoul-Washington FTA motion as early as possible, Lee's transition committee is in talks with the incumbent Roh Moo-hyun government to ``fully'' open the beef market to the U.S.

Quarantine officials plan to hold a meeting soon with their U.S. counterpart to import meat unconditionally, without reference to bone-containing, ribs, cattle age.

The U.S. Trade Representative has continued to press Korea to break the current quarantine rule allowing boneless U.S. beef from cattle younger than 30 months, threatening to annul the provisional accords.

Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Im Sang-gyu said that no significant risk has been found in U.S. beef.

But former Agriculture-Forestry Minister Park Hong-soo, who stepped down last August, said, ``Nobody would shoulder the responsibility if the quarantine issue hits the market in the future (from another report of possible mad cow disease in North America).''

``Lee is struggling to minimize the political burden by asking President Roh to push for the passing of the motion to ratify the FTA by the National Assembly before Roh's tenure expires on Feb. 25,'' the Korean Advanced Farmers Association said early this month.

The participants demanded Lee and the Grand National Party (GNP) keep their earlier promise ― policy to maintain the current level of prices for rice and stabilization of agricultural products.

Over the past month, Lee's team has discussed shortcuts for early effectuation of the FTA with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including a prompt solution over U.S. beef imports.

kys@koreatimes.co.kr