Agricultural policy making under international pressures: The case of South Korea, a newly industrialized country

Abstract

The article examines the hypothesis that domestic farm politics determines the nation's trade policy, not vice versa. In the context of South Korea, a newly industrialized country, it is found that the international political economy significantly dictates the formulation of its domestic farm policy. This is due mainly to Korea's export-dependent economy. Korea's dilemma is that while international pressures are mounting for agricultural import liberalization, particularly from the USA, with which it has accumulated a large payment imbalance, its domestic farm interests (which are increasingly independent of government supervision) exert powerful protectionist pressures on government. Caught between the two antagonistic forces, Korean policy makers are seeking ways to scale down their rural economy in order to make it competitive on the one hand, and to make room for increased imports on the other.