02/15/07 Beef and South Korean trade

Beef and South Korea Trade United States trade policies continue to baffle me. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back right after this with some comments. I sometimes think when I hear the United States and South Korea are continuing free-trade negotiations, the U.S. trade representatives forget about the word "trade" and only think about "what can the U.S. do for South Korea". Two different articles in the Western Livestock Reporter talk about the U.S. South Korean free trade negotiations. In the first place, agriculture is not a top priority in the FTA talk. Well that might not be much of a problem for some international traders, but it hits pretty close to home with me and sometimes agricultural products are one of the few items we can use to compete in some foreign countries given our large land mass, efficiency of production and quality of product. I'm also a little bothered by the comment Wendy Cutler, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative made. She stated "My team and I are prepared to take big steps to narrow our differences on as many issues as possible including the tough issues." Why does that statement make me think our trading team is going to give into as many South Korean demands as it takes to make a trade deal? South Korea has been more than difficult negotiating resumption of importing U.S. beef. Maybe the U.S. should be more than difficult about importing South Korean automobiles until more U.S. beef and agricultural products move into that country. I believe that would be called trading. I'm Jeff Keane. Western Livestock Reporter 1/24/07