South Korea has asked its major trade partners including China and the United States for cooperation in its upcoming negotiations to set tariff rates on its rice imports, the trade ministry said Sunday.
South Korea on Friday announced that it will open its rice market to tariffed imports, ending a 20-year waiver that had capped the import of the grain to a set minimum. It now has to negotiate the tariff rates with the World Trade Organization (WTO) before the market opening from Jan. 1 next year.