Yonhap showing us how to drum up domestic support for the KoAm FTA—tell ‘em it’s scaring the crap out of the Japanese [Yonhap News, Korean].
The Japanese are useful afterall
Previous post: Kevin on L’Auberge Espagnole, Babel
Next post: Australia immigration help
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Is it really scaring the Japanese? Maybe so, but it also might be a figment of Korean imagination that most Japanese think about Korea much (the Korean wave in Japan is probably not that different than the Canadian wave in the US-oh, you didn’t know there was a Canadian wave in the US?).
The important thing is, with Japan and China signing FTAs left, right and center, Korea should have been scared into signing this deal long ago, rather than so many (including many in Roh’s own party) fighting it tooth and nail. If this goes through, I will have to hand it to Roh. The incompetent boob may have pulled something worthy out of his a** to save his ‘legacy’ from the dumpster.
Well if you read the korean newspapers on the net, then you got the impression that the “Japanese” are “scared”. But if you read Japanese newspapers, then you got quite different impressions. In fact its not that a big news.
Ofcourse there could be some economic experts who suggest that Japan should also revive the FTA negotiations with the USA, but “scaring the crap out…”?
Wishful thinking I guess.
The first line:
“일본이 한국과 미국 양국간의 자유무역협정(FTA) 협상 타결 소식을 충격적으로 받아들이고 있는 가운데”
is overplay. But the rest of the article is not too unreasonable. It quotes a Waseda professor who feels Japan needs to conclude a FTA with the US as well to remain competitive.
Again, it is reasonable that some economic experts suggest the need to conclude a FTA with the US. But the Japanese are scared? Why not in a cool manner just explaining “some Japanese experts pointed out the need to conclude a FTA as soon as possible with the USA like the Korean government did”.
In today’s Japanese newspaper there is almost non coverage about the FTA between South Korea and the US.
Tomojiro, the article didn’t say the Japanese are scared. It said “Japan is in shock after the news of the FTA between Korea and US”. Dramatically exaggerated I’m sure. It’s not news Korean newspapers do this to sell paper.
The Japs have two opinions about the matter and only what the elites think matter. Jap newspapers can be a little hard to read. For example, when the entire real estate market crashed in Japan, the article was paragraph on page 3 of most papers. The bigger the economy the less the average person cares. Even finance students might not know whom America has FTA’s with and if you look at the FTA article in WSJ it is not a lead story and if you read the article carefully it mainly pontificates about the increase of about 20 billion dollars in trade productivity and the political impact on US PAC groups. 20 Billion US dollars is lot of bennies for Korea but I assure you it is about as noticable as not getting one extra ketchup with your fries after spending a 100 dollars at McDonald’s to the American economy. Even a FTA agreement with China is not that significant as of now and perhaps not for twenty years. The only real FTA of immediate importance would be Japan and believe me they will be studying the Korean model to see how the FTA trade structure affects Korean political/economic landscape. So America only really wants the FTA to show the Japs that they have nothing to fear and because a Jap/America alliance will be necessary for the next 30 years. A stronger trade alliance with Japan will smooth possible future market fluctuations in a regional conflict with China. If an FTA Asian Zone is created with Japan and Korean as the linchpins then in 15 years time a thaw in relations with China will pretty much only hurt China.
I’ve heard economists in the US say Japan may have missed the boat by not starting talks with the US earlier, because Bush’s trade promotion authority will run out and a Democratic Congress is not likely to renew it.
While I don’t know if people are fearful of the FTA between the US and Korea, it is being given it’s fair share of media coverage. For example there is this nice front page editorial from this morning’s Yomiuri about what it means in general, and for Japan.
Tried to put an image in too, but it didn’t work. If anyone doesn’t believe me that it was on the front page, you can see it here:
http://static.zooomr.com/images/911102_4dadbb8889_o.jpg
Actually, it looks like the Korean press is scared:
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200704/200704040009.html
Many of Japan’s largest exporters to the US have already jumped US tariffs by producing within the US (Toyota for instance). So, unlikely they’ve had the ‘crap scared out of them.’ It might have a marginal impact on a US-Japan FTA, but consider the obstacles – like the Japanese distribution system for instance. Japan has a larger market, depends less on exports, and therefore needs an FTA less than Korea does. So, I very much doubt a US-J FTA will happen soon
You must log in to post a comment.
{ 1 trackback }