Your beef roundup:
- The government has asked the United States to ban the export of beef from cows over 30 months of age. The beef deal will be put on hold until the United States responds. Money Today notes that should the United States respond with an extended middle finger, the restart of beef imports could be delayed for a long time, creating a good old-fashioned trade dispute.
- Yonhap reports that that the government is asking people to avoid calling the current situation a “renegotiation.” US trade journal “Inside US Trade,” however, reportedly reported yesterday that USTR has been “negotiating” with the Korean government for the last several days.
- US beef producers said they would temporarily label the age of meat exported to Korea.
More later.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
For once, I’m in complete agreement with the Korean Government! This is not a renegotiation. Abrogation comes to mind. BOHICA
If that’s what the consumers want, regardless of whether their fears are rational or not, then that’s what they should get. In the end, everyone wins: the crackpots think they’ve earned a moral victory, consumers get a more affordable product, and importers have more distributors to chose from.
And exactly how long can one expect those labels to remain unaltered once they hit the peninsula ?
Korean politics.
1. Find an issue that you disagree with. (this case import of US beef)
2. Find a reason real or imagined. Use biased media reports to enhance your case. (MBC Documentary) ( a long time ago when the 386s where in college, I asked many of them how much of the media they believed. They told me they believed none of it. I asked them how much of the anti american reports they believed. They responded 100 percent. Thus, with this level of critical thinking, you can say almost anything negative about the USA in this country and it will be believed.
3. Tie the issue to the reservoir of mistrust carefully created and maninpulated by the Korean left. (The USA looks down on us, USA does not respects us, USA uses us. They even try to conjure up 2002 by using middle school students to believe the USA was trying to kill the young children of Korea. All of this is used to try to create the mass hysteria. Or try to link it to Dokdo. The rumors going around about LMB trying to give Dokdo to Japan. This time the USA is trying to poison the Korean people won over the Dokdo issue. It was a stretch to link US beef with Dokdo but they tried.
4. Once you have the mass perception, back pedal on the facts and use public opinion to your advantage. Suddenly, this has nothing to do with anti americanism, its purely domestic issue,its no longer even about public saftey its more about the dictator LMB. FYI 90 percent of anti american sentiment is used purely for domestic political purposes. Usually, its the most potent weapon the left wing political parties have in their arsenal.
In this case, lets try to weaken LMB and his power to enforce new policies. Lets stop him reducing jobs, making Korean english teachers use English, making a grand canal. Lets try to stop him from promoting his agenda.
It seems that the GNP or perhaps even LMB needs to go on TV and combat this use of anti americanism by the left. He has five years to counter and reason with the masses in Korea. If the GNP fails to address this issue, the left will always use it against them. However, if they are able to eradicate this tool. The GNP would have a hard time using it to cover up real problems within Korea and it would have to provide responsive govnemenr something no Korean government has ever been able to achieve.
With this cave in to public opinion, LMB and GNP are just setting themselves up to be whacked again, by populist anti americanistic forces when the disagree with future government policies.
Lee obviously hasn’t paid attention to previous anti-US/USFK spikes:
Don’t apologize.
Apologizing might work for movie, TV, and music stars. It doesn’t work for the US in Korea or high level politicians.
Michael Breen’s last column showed he got it.
Apologizing and caving in is like pouring blood into a pool of sharks.
#4 American Soul, excellent analysis, summed up very well how the manipulation of politics works in ROK.
“If that’s what the consumers want” — Who consulted consumers in the ROK on this and other issues?
#8,
You must admit, the thousands of useful idiots are too naive to realize that they are tools (in every sense of the word) are consumers.
I agree. Very nice analysis.
Sophomoric fairyland twaddle.
The sort illiterate expats lap up.
Everyones an expert on the Internet.
Life on the outside of Korean society makes you bitter and cynical, doesn’t it.
Here’s a tip, drop you assumptions and try to learn more about Korea from Koreans.
We are not that different from you guys.
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