Korean Job Discussion Forums

[legalquestions]

Korea has been crowing a lot recently about what it perceives as a threat by Obama to even out the playing field re the current auto trade imbalance. They are spouting off about the threat of possible upcoming American protectionism (note that this is coming from one of the most protectionist countries in the world).

I thought this to be rather hypocritical/ironic, and it got me to thinking about Korean protectionism. Beside the obvious issues of American beef (where is it, by the way?), American cars/trucks trade imbalance, cell phone non-tariff trade barriers, what are some of the other things which Korea currently favors, by way of it's protectionist policies?

Help me out here, please.......................

[Whistleblower]

Kimchi - one example is they hate imported kimchi and they only export the stuff to other countries.

[sojourner1]

The high tarifsf on foreign imports to discourage imports and encourage support of domestic producers is a good start. Protectionism is slowly hold and Korea is slowly opening up. It's said that 2/3 of American goods will become duty free in Korea soon. http://www.fas.usda.gov/info/factsheets/korea.asp

Some things are exempt from tariffs such as aluminum and other raw materials from China as these are required physical mass for Korea to produce it's exports due to not having many natural resources. The very materials that modern Korean cities, cars, and exports are composed of are all foreign, mostly from China.

One upside of protectionism is that mechanical quality is quite good in Korea with Korean workers experiencing job security and career opportunities with high pay vs. the junk China produces with low skilled labor working for peanuts. Korea does outsource many food and small plastic things manufacturing to China. While quality of hardware manufacturing is quite good, it's very poor at medicine and personal hygene production, but forces consumers to use low quality items anyhow as to support the country by not buying foreign. It's only been like in the past year you could get Listerine made in Thailand, but identical to American as food, medicine, and personal hygiene are Thailands strong core competencies. Food is another thing Korea doesn't have enough of so they must import from China, Thailand, and several other countries which passes through several Korean middle men which makes the prices high despite it being super cheap when purchased from China in bulk. Having many middle men creates jobs for many low skilled Koreans such as drivers and supports overall domestic economic interests, but makes retail prices excessively high which means supply rarely exceeds demand so you don't see many rock bottom bargain sales in retail stores. The little bit on sale that gets out of date or shabby looking is still expensive. There are no freebies, no huge price slashing, no roll backs, nor bargains as to keep the market competitive and support Korean business and employment interests. They're smart for trying to protect jobs and maximize profits, but the exports and the good jobs export manufacturing offers is what's supports artificially inflated retail prices. When the export bubble bursts, then the general population will no longer support these kind of prices so you get a chain reaction through the whole economy.

Really Korea is operating in a vacuum when it comes to business and economics. A vacuum sucks in a lot more money and raw materials than it lets out and protects itself from the free market dynamics existing in the global economy. The reason why it can't be totally exempt from the outside world's troubles is it needs to sell finished exports in order to buy raw materials which in turn keeps it's domestic economy humming along. The other reason is billionaire currencies speculating such as them selling trillions of won in recent months making the currency lose value against the dollar.

Korea wants a weak won, because this protects its' export interests where Korean made is now 35% cheaper in the USA than it was before September of this year. In theory that's how it would work. Hard to say if it actually works that way or if Americans are simply out of money to buy it, but we know Korean companies are seeing profits plummet this year like a hot rock to the tune of 40 something percent.

Protectionism is not a final solution, but puts a hold on formidable troubles that lay ahead while limiting consumerism.

[SHANE02]

http://www.ustr.gov/assets/Trade_Agreements/Bilateral/Republic_of_Korea_FTA/Final_Text/asset_upload_file786_12756.pdf

Here ....it's shocking.

And LMB was just the other day calling for OTHER countries not to increase trade barriers in the face of the current world crisis.

Thanks to Marmots BTW

[Smee]

Worth pointing out the cellphone market in Korea that prohibits foreign phones b/c of incompatable technology. Meanwhile 43% of the phones in the US are Korean-made.

http://www.korealawblog.com/entry/samsung_no._1_in_us_mobile_phone_market/

Yes, all this talk of how protectionism is bad is ridiculous. Bad now that the US wants to do it, but perfectly acceptable when other countries want to keep US products out.

[4 months left]

Korean cars sold in the U.S. last year - 700,000

American cars sold in Korea last year - 6,000

[bassexpander]

Easy....

Walk down to the Volvo dealership in Hannam Dong. Ask them how much you pay if you are on SOFA. Then ask them what you'll pay if you're not.

The difference in price is about 1/3.

Not even an American product.

[Thunndarr]

Rice.

[cruisemonkey]

Potato chips - Lays (made in China) were introduced last year, then promptly disappeared.

[Xuanzang]

Korean only rice. No IKEA, H&M. "Partnerships" for every foreign company here. Always has to have a Korean supporter eg. LG-Otis or Chilsung and Coke.

[cruisemonkey]

The price of rice 'freaked me out' when I first came to K-land. I was living in the middle of miles and miles of rice paddies... the whole freakin' country was a giant rice paddy! Yet, the price of rice was eight times that in Canada (where it's all imported from half-way around the world - China).

[Xuanzang]

Canada gets it from California or Japan for the same short grain rice grown in Korea but for WAY cheaper.

[sojourner1]

I get that good fluffy rice for cheap in the USA I make chicken catchatori with just like how it's cheap in Thailand for the curries and sweet sour chicken. That fluffy white rice is common in South Asia like it is in the Americas. In fact, most of those countries like Thailand and India import much of it from the USA.

In the USA, I also get that while brown/black long grain rice which is so awesome, but pricey like Korean white sticky rice in Korea. I'm sure you can get glutanous North Asian style rice, but it's not in my palate of taste. I usually prepared the wild rice on Turkey Day and sometimes with chicken dinners. It's a super food.

[Paji eh Wong]

Can't get no Blackberry or iPhone in the Korea.

But oh, wait. That is a technical problem, not a trade barrier.

[Seoul'n'Corea]