Feature: S.Koreans anticipate cheap, high-quality Chinese products after FTA

Products"made in China"are easily found in discount stores and department stores, and even in traditional markets, all around South Korea, but China-branded products are barely detected.

At an outlet in the country's largest discount store chain E- mart in central Seoul, one can easily find fruits from overseas, including blueberry and grape from Chile and orange and nuts from the United States as well as the Philippines pineapple and Thai coconut. No Chinese farm goods was there.

Many South Korean citizens anticipated that the China-South Korea free trade agreement (FTA) would bring cheap, high-quality China-branded products to the country, helping them get a wider range of choices as consumers.

But many expressed deep concerns about the weakening of price competitiveness for local companies, especially small ones, though they recognized the inevitability of the free trade pact with China, South Korea's No.1 trading partner. "Prices will fall after the Korea-China FTA. It will benefit ordinary people,"Kim Mi- kyung, a 35-year-old housewife, said in an interview Thursday.

China and South Korea initialed the bilateral pact on Feb. 25, about three months after the two sides concluded negotiations on it. Beijing and Seoul began talks on the deal in May 2012.

Under the accord, China and South Korea will eliminate tariffs on more than 90 percent of all products from each other within 20 years after the FTA implementation. The South Korean government aims to sign the pact and get a parliamentary approval by the end of 2015. "Industrial products from China is cheap. And, their quality is getting better. Inflow of cheap Chinese products will benefit Korean consumers,"said a self-employed in his late 50s who declined to be identified. The man, who was shopping at the E-mart outlet, said he would buy Chinese products, which would be prevalent in markets after the FTA implementation, if those are low in price and high in quality.

The man worried about possible damages to South Korean companies caused by the FTA with China, but said it would be unavoidable for South Korea to open markets to Chinese companies given the surging trade with the world's largest consumer market. The man, who has working experience in Hong Kong some decades ago, stressed that China has a great potential as a consumer market for South Korean companies.

The China-South Korea free trade accord, initialed some 30 months after the launch of negotiations, excluded rice from the negotiating agenda on Seoul's worry about strong opposition from local farmers. Rice is a staple food of South Koreans, on which farmers mainly depend for income.

About one third of all farm goods produced in South Korea, or 548 agricultural products, were excluded from the negotiating agenda. Among those excluded were beef, pork, apple, citrus, pear, garlic and chili pepper.

For beef, South Korea has a bitter experience during negotiations with the United State for their FTA. Candlelight vigil spread nationwide in protest against U.S. beef imports in 2008 when former President Lee Myung-bak took office. Participants were not only farmers but office workers and housewives with their babies taken in strollers.

South Koreans remember the experience. Oh Hyun-gu, a 23-year- old student at Hanyang University, said the inflow of cheap, high- quality Chinese products would be positive, but he cannot be sure about whether the free trade pact would have positive or negative effects on his daily life.

Son Miyoung, another Hanyang University student, said she cannot imagine what the China-South Korea FTA would change her daily life as many Chinese products can already be found in markets. Endi