China and Chile Sign Free - Trade Agreement - New York Times

China and Chile Sign Free - Trade Agreement - New York Times

November 18, 2005
China and Chile Sign Free - Trade Agreement
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:00 a.m. ET

BUSAN, South Korea (AP) -- China and Chile signed a free-trade agreement Friday, the first between China and a Latin American country.

Chilean Foreign Minister Ignacio Walker and his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing signed the pact on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Busan, South Korea. Chinese President Hu Jintao and Chilean President Ricardo Lagos witnessed the signing.

No details of the agreement were immediately released, but it was quickly welcomed by business leaders. Chilean officials have said it is the first free-trade agreement between China and a Latin American country.

''The free-trade agreement is a historic step for free trade -- important for China, important for Chile, important for Latin America,'' Mauro Mazzacurati, the president of delivery company DHL's operation in Chile, told The Associated Press.

Earlier Friday, Lagos extolled the benefits of bilateral free-trade agreements in a speech to business executives at the APEC forum, which aims to achieve free trade between its 21 member economies by 2020.

Lagos said the ultimate goal should be a strong multilateral trading system based on the World Trade Organization.

Disputes over agriculture and other issues have soured hopes of advancing trade liberalization goals at the WTO's ministerial meeting in Hong Kong next month. Recent talks in Europe have failed to resolve the disputes.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections XML Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map Back to Top

CNN.com - Spicy China-S. Korea?trade dispute - Nov 13, 2005

CNN.com - Spicy China-S. Korea?trade dispute - Nov 13, 2005Spicy China-S. Korea trade dispute
Kimchi parasite scare feeds pungent war of words

SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) -- Take a cabbage. Pack it in a large clay pot with garlic, ginger, fish sauce and fiery red peppers. Add some other goodies and let it ferment.

What do you get? The pungent Korean dish called kimchi -- and a scare about parasite eggs that has ignited a trade dispute between two of Asia's largest economies.

Kimchi is served at almost every meal and made in most homes. But increasing imports of the spicy cabbage from China have raised a ruckus about a foreign country eating away at the market for a national dish that is at the essence of Korean identity.

Last month, the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) banned the sale of kimchi imported from China because samples contained parasites' eggs that likely came from the use of human feces as fertilizer in Chinese agricultural production, it said.

The KFDA then added more spice to the trade pickle earlier this month, releasing a report saying parasite eggs had also been found in 3.2 percent of South Korean-made kimchi.

"I'm really worried about the state of kimchi these days," said Yoon Ji-sun, a graduate student who went on a tour of a kimchi factory in order to get tips on pickling her own at home.

"We cannot trust anyone but ourselves when it comes to kimchi," she said by telephone.

Kimchi science
Some of the South Korean kimchi producers cited as having a tainted product have sent kimchi to markets such as Japan -- and even supplied South Korea's presidential Blue House, the KFDA said.

Typically, the science of kimchi has been less about findings in the lab and more about claims such as warding of the SARS virus and preventing cancer.

One Seoul pharmacist said consumers are worried.

"We have sold five times the amount of anti-parasite medicine in recent days than we normally do, said Yoo Ha-na.

Demand for kimchi had not dropped over fears about Chinese imports, South Korean officials said. But they are not sure what will happen after the revelation the domestic product may also be tainted.

According to the Korean Food Research Institute, the average South Korean each year consumes about 75 pounds of kimchi, which is mostly made with cabbage, though a variety of vegetables can also be used.

The kimchi worries started in September with a report that Chinese-made kimchi had a higher lead content than South Korean-made kimchi. Scientists later said the content did not present a significant health hazard.

China complained about the lead-content report and when South Korea banned the import of Chinese-made kimchi last month, Beijing slapped import bans on several South Korean food products.

In 2004, China became South Korea's leading trading partner, with two-way trade totaling $79.35 billion, up 39.2 percent from the year before, South Korea's trade ministry said.

This year's imports of kimchi from China to Oct. 20 reached 94,128 tons, up by about 30 percent from the same period last year. The 2005 imports had a value of about $40 million, South Korea's food administration said.

Although the dispute will not be on the menu of official talks at an Asia-Pacific summit in Pusan, South Korea, later this month, kimchi could make its way into informal chats among the leaders, foreign ministers and business leaders -- and is almost certain to be served during official functions.

The foreign ministers of China and South Korea have said they want to avoid a trade war over the kimchi spat.

Five years ago, South Korea imposed a 10-fold increase in tariffs on Chinese garlic partly over health concerns, partly to protect its farmers. China retaliated with restrictions on Korean mobile phone imports.

Miracle food
Over the years, kimchi has been billed as a miracle food with an amazing, and perhaps exaggerated, array of health benefits.

Kimchi cuts cholesterol, prevents obesity, diabetes and stomach cancer, constipation and colon cancer, and to top it off, keeps a person young and their skin healthy, according to the Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp.

Most of these claims, however, have not been supported through extensive scientific testing.

Kang Sa-ouk, a professor at South Korea's prestigious Seoul National University, is testing to see if an extract from kimchi can be used as an additive for chicken feed to prevent bird flu.

"The feed has been shown to help improve the fight against bird flu or other types of flu viruses," said Kang.

Another scientist, who specializes in kimchi, said that even though claims such as cancer prevention have not been proven through substantial study, the food staple does help health.

"There are a lot of ingredients in kimchi, as well as microbes produced during the fermentation process that help a person's immune systems and circulation," said Lee Myung-ki, a senior researcher at the Korea Food Research Institute who leads its kimchi task force.

Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/11/13/korea.china.kimchi.reut/index.html

CNN.com - Seoul grants China market status - Nov 16, 2005

CNN.com - Seoul grants China market status - Nov 16, 2005Seoul grants China market status

SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) -- President Roh Moo-hyun said on Wednesday that South Korea had granted Beijing market economy status, a landmark move that will give China greater protection from anti-dumping duties on exports.

Roh was speaking during Hu's two-day state visit to Seoul, the first by a Chinese president since former President Jiang Zemin made a state visit in 1995.

"On the occasion of President Hu's visit, I officially conveyed our government's decision to recognize China's position as a market economy status. Through this, I expect South Korea-China relations to develop a step higher," Roh told a joint news conference with Hu.

South Korea's decision to open up to China now was another piece of evidence of the warm ties between the two countries, enemies up until the early 1990s after China fought on the side of the North in the 1950-53 Korean War.

Under the terms of China's 2001 accession to the World Trade Organization, members of the trade body can treat China as a "non-market economy" until 2016.

China became South Korea's largest trading partner last year, with two-way trade totalling $79.35 billion, up 39.2 percent from the year before, according to South Korean government figures.

North Korea talks
The two leaders also issued a joint statement in which they urged everyone involved in negotiations to end North Korea's nuclear programs to show flexibility.

The leaders of all countries in the negotiations except North Korea -- China, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Russia -- will be in the southern port city of Pusan for a summit of the 21 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

"Both sides shared the view that each of the parties must continue to show flexibility with sincerity and should implement the (agreement) and continue to make progress in the process," the joint statement said.

The six agreed at talks in September that North Korea would dismantle its nuclear weapons in return for economic and energy aid and better ties with Washington and Tokyo.

Argentina and Brazil have both recognised China, now one of the world's top trading nations, as a market economy last year but the European Union said this month that it was not yet in a position to give a target date for awarding the label.

Treating China like a non-market economy allows trading partners to use production costs in third countries to evaluate whether Chinese imports are "dumped," or unfairly priced.

Beijing says this means it receives higher anti-dumping duties than if Chinese costs were used in the evaluation.

"Both sides are happy to see that trade between the two countries will reach $100 billion in 2005, three years ahead of goal, and agreed to continue efforts to accomplish $200 billion in bilateral trade by 2012 on the 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties," the statement said.

Diplomatic ties between the South and China began in 1992.

Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/11/16/skorea.china.reut/index.html

CNN.com - Bilateral deals all the rage at APEC - Nov 18, 2005

CNN.com - Bilateral deals all the rage at APEC - Nov 18, 2005Bilateral deals all the rage at APEC
BUSAN, South Korea (AP) -- As world leaders gathered Friday for their annual talks on building a free trade zone that circles the Pacific, they were also spending time in sideline huddles forging one-on-one agreements.

That is because the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum's free-trade goals may be a fine idea, but it is often speedier to work out bilateral deals, officials say.

"We're not going to shy away from those," said Andre Lemay, spokesman for Canada's APEC delegation. "Dealing one-on-one, it's much simpler."

A meeting on APEC sidelines between Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and his Japanese counterpart Junichiro Koizumi set for Saturday afternoon is expected to take to another level talks that began in January to hammer out a framework for boosting trade and investment between the two nations.

Such talks often precede official free trade negotiations.

Year after year, APEC meetings -- including this year's -- have reaffirmed the larger vision for a regional free trade union.

APEC's 21 members, which make up 60 percent of the world's economy, have the goal of setting up a free trade zone by 2010 for industrialized nations, and developing ones by 2020.

Each year at their summit, leaders reaffirm their commitment to the goal and endorse a raft of "action plans" and "peer reviews" monitoring progress toward it.

But some analysts and business executives who take part in APEC meetings worry that progress it too slow.

In the meantime, the two-nation free trade agreements, or FTAs, keep on coming.

"FTAs are all the rage. They're in," said Keiichiro Kobayashi, an economics expert at the Research Institute of Economy Trade and Industry in Tokyo.

Kobayashi warned the appeal of multilateral agreements could be dimmed by sprouting two-way accords, although the global economy is likely to benefit more from all-encompassing agreements in the long run.

Some nations are even worried about getting left behind if they don't get bilateral arrangements, he said.

During the leaders' meeting Friday, nearly all the participants made statements welcoming free trade agreements, which encouraged economic ties among Asian nations, Japanese Foreign Ministry Deputy Director-General Satoru Satoh said.

On Friday, China and Chile signed a bilateral free trade accord, China's first with a Latin American country.

South Korea agreed to strengthen economic cooperation with Peru, and later Panama, this week on the sidelines of APEC.

During his APEC visit, Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said his nation was finishing negotiating free trade agreements with the United States, Thailand, Singapore and Chile, and had started talks with China.

The rush of such deals prompted Jae-hyun Hyun, head of APEC's Business Advisory Council, composed of business people from each of the 21 member economies, to urge leaders to get serious about global trade discussions and pointed to the spread of bilateral pacts as a reflection of stalled wider talks.

Roberto R. Romulo, chairman of the Philam Insurance Co. Inc. and a member of the ABAC, said FTAs went against the principle of the World Trade Organization, which has been faltering in trying to reach a global trade accord.

"We believe in the long term there has to be a common template," he said.

Lemay, the Canadian delegate, said efforts to achieve wider trade rules were still important in offering "a level playing field" for participants.

"Both have their place," he said.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/11/18/apec.bilateral.ap/index.html