The South Korean government has postponed a decision on whether to liberalize the local rice market, due to strong objections from farmers as well as ongoing debates about import duties on rice.

The government, which is preparing to open the rice market, was supposed to announce its decision at a meeting of economy-related ministers on Monday.

However, it decided to delay the announcement until sometime in July, citing lack of time to gain public consensus on the issue.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, which must make the final decision on the rice market as the current waiver deal with the World Trade Organization ends this year, said it would report the case to the National Assembly to gather consensus with lawmakers.

“We’re going to undertake procedures to gain the parliament’s consent in July,” an official from the ministry told The Korea Herald.

“But we can’t confirm at the moment when or how we’re going to announce the final decision.”

The country was allowed to delay its rice market liberalization for 10 years under a 1993 agreement with the WTO in which the country agreed to increase its minimum market access import quota by 20,000 tons per year. The government extended the agreement by 10 years in 2004.

The Agriculture Ministry concluded that it would be a better choice to slap high tariffs on imported rice instead of putting off liberalization, or tariffication, and increasing mandatory imports. Some worry that the already minimum rice import quota, which has grown steadily since 1993, is already too high. According to the ministry, its import rice quota for this year has exceeded 408,000 tons.

The country may face a possible oversupply of rice this year due to an increase in imports and domestic production, and a steady decline in rice consumption, the ministry said.

The government is expected to decide soon on what tariffs to impost on rice imports. Experts predict that the import duties will range from 300 to 500 percent.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)