Chapter 416 2 Difficulties

Chapter 416 2 Difficulties

Chapter 416 Dilemma
After a long period of development, any country will have various vested interest groups. These groups concentrate or even monopolize a certain industry, do their best to suppress their peers, exclude competition, and even use their influence in the industry to dominate the formulation of the entire country's industry-related policies.

In East Asia, whether in South Korea or Japan, and regardless of the industry, similar vested interest groups exist.

In South Korea, organizations like the Nonghyup and the Korean Beef Association are actually vested interest groups in their respective industries. Take the Nonghyup as an example. In An Rusong's previous life, there were always netizens in China who mocked Koreans for not being able to afford fruit. They went to a buffet in China and took a table full of watermelons and oranges, and they were worried that eating too much fruit would make the boss lose money.

In fact, it’s not that Koreans can’t afford fruit, it’s just that the price of fruit is relatively expensive in Korea. There are two reasons for this:
First, the per capita arable land in South Korea is too small. In addition, the terrain is complex and there is almost no large plain area suitable for mechanized farming. Therefore, all agricultural-related products are expensive. To be honest, if the Korean Peninsula is blockaded by foreign forces and imports and exports are cut off, Koreans will starve to death.

As for the second reason, it is related to industry organizations such as the Agricultural Cooperatives Association and the Korean Beef Association. Contrary to the demand of ordinary Koreans for agricultural and livestock product prices to fall, these industry-based vested interest groups, of course, prefer that agricultural and livestock product prices remain high, because only in this way can they reap more profits.

To this end, for a long time in the past, organizations such as agricultural cooperatives have been influencing national policies through various means, finding various excuses to isolate the import of foreign agricultural and livestock products, or imposing high tariffs on foreign agricultural and livestock products.

In the world of An Rushong's previous life, whether it was Koreans or Japanese, they would always spread the word that the food safety of a certain northern country was worrying, saying that there were pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables, too many additives in foods, carcinogens exceeded the standard, and so on. It seemed as if there were really big problems with the things imported from a certain northern country.

The funniest thing is that propaganda like this can actually directly influence domestic public opinion in a certain big country in the north, causing the Chinese people themselves to believe this argument and think that Korean and Japanese food is cleaner and safer.

An Rushong doesn't even bother to comment on such arguments, but if we just look at the situation in South Korea, in a country where doctors can prescribe addictive drugs to minors in order to make more money, and where there is no agency to supervise and investigate, isn't it a bit too ridiculous to discuss food and drug safety issues?

Of course, behind such propaganda, the operation of organizations such as the Agricultural Cooperatives is indispensable. They have spent a lot of money on guiding public opinion.

It is not surprising that organizations like the Korean Beef Association would publicly oppose Lee Min-bo's new beef import agreement with the United States, but the question is, as the new president, why did Lee Min-bo want to make changes on the issue of beef imports?

In addition to the pressure from the United States, there is naturally also pressure from within South Korea.

The Korean Beef Association opposes the new beef import agreement based on their own interests, and if this agreement is not signed, the United States will not sign the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement.

In the past few years, South Korea and the United States have been negotiating a new free trade agreement. In the draft currently drafted by the two sides, there is a very important agreement: nearly 95% of the trade tariffs on consumer and industrial products between South Korea and the United States will be eliminated. In particular, in the automobile trade, the United States promised to eliminate the import tariffs on Korean cars with a displacement of less than 3 liters.

The free trade agreement was discussed during the last term of President Kim Jong Un, but it was not concluded until he stepped down.

Then, why was President Roh able to enter the Blue House smoothly? Was it simply because he was a good lawyer and worked hard enough? These may be part of the reasons why he was able to become president, but they are definitely not the main reasons. The reality is that President Roh also received support from major Korean chaebols during his campaign, and these chaebols supported him in part because they hoped to sign a free trade agreement with the Americans as soon as possible.

During the years when President Roh was in office, the free trade agreement was still under discussion, but because of the issue of beef imports, South Korea and the United States were never able to reach a compromise. So, during Lee Min-bo's presidential campaign, he received support from certain chaebols.

In other words, industry organizations like the Agricultural Cooperatives and the Korean Beef Association actually have conflicts of interest with some of the Korean chaebols that are mainly engaged in industry and business. Interestingly, compared with those big chaebols, organizations like the Agricultural Cooperatives and the Korean Beef Association are not weak, so they can fight back and forth with each other.

In turn, this contradiction and conflict at the economic level is directly reflected at the political level. Therefore, this is one of the reasons why the struggle between conservatives and progressives in South Korea is so acute.

Therefore, after Lee Min-bo entered the Blue House, he had no choice on the issue of the South Korea-US beef import agreement, because the issue of South Korea-US beef imports is not only related to whether South Korea should import beef over 30 months old from the United States, but also whether Americans will open their consumer and industrial product markets to South Korea.

If the South Korea-US beef import agreement is signed, the massive amount of beef imported from the United States will have a devastating impact on South Korea's livestock industry, which is mainly based on family farming. At the same time, if the livestock industry is destroyed, agriculture, which is mainly based on family planting, will also be greatly impacted.

Therefore, for the Agricultural Cooperatives and the Korean Beef Association, the signing of this agreement is tantamount to cutting off their lifeblood, and they will naturally not let it go.

On the other hand, if this agreement is not signed, the Americans will not sign the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, and if the Americans do not sign, Korean consumer goods, including industrial products such as automobiles, will not be able to enter the US market at lower tariffs, which means tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars in losses for those chaebols and industrial conglomerates every year. Therefore, if this agreement is not signed, it is equivalent to cutting flesh from the chaebols, and they will naturally not give up.

As the president, Lee Min-bo always had to choose a team to stand for, so he finally chose to support the chaebols. This choice was actually more beneficial to the whole of South Korea. Because industrial exports increased, the government's fiscal revenue could increase, but if he supported the Agricultural Cooperatives and the Korean Beef Association, these organizations could not provide tax revenue. On the contrary, they had to demand massive subsidies from the government every year.

The Chevrolet was eventually stuck on the Yongdong Bridge. Feeling that the car had come to a complete stop, An Rushong opened the door directly without holding an umbrella, and got out of the car directly. He put one foot on the door pedal, grabbed the top of the door with both hands, and looked towards the front of the bridge.

At this time, the entire Yongdong Bridge was blocked by the demonstrators, and the road was filled with the piercing sound of car horns. Right in front of the Chevrolet, there was an ambulance with its lights flashing, blocking the road a dozen parking spaces away. An Rusong saw a policeman and two doctors in purple emergency suits arguing with a few people holding umbrellas.

The rain seemed to be getting heavier at this time. An Rusong glanced at it, licked his teeth, and thought about getting back into the car. But just as he was about to bend down to get back into the car, two figures suddenly flashed in his sight.

He stopped bending and turned to look at the two figures. He was shocked to find that among the two jogging figures, one of them was carrying a camera on his shoulder, while the one running in front was a woman in a white suit without an umbrella.

Obviously, these are two reporters interviewing on the spot.

"What are you looking at?" At this time, Han Xizhen, who was sitting in the car, also came over. She seemed to be worried that An Rushong would fall, so when she asked the question, she carefully reached out and grabbed the hem of his clothes.

"Nothing," An Rushong took another look at the location of the ambulance, raised his eyebrows, and then replied absentmindedly while bending down and returning to the car.

"Close the car door quickly, I'm feeling a bit cold," Han Miyeon complained in the back seat.

An Rusong didn't say anything. He reached out and grabbed the door handle, pulling the door forward. But just as the door was about to close, he suddenly exerted force and pulled the door forward by inertia.

"What's the matter?" Han Xizhen asked curiously.

An Rusong did not answer her, but reached out to open the partition window and said to Luo Minzhi who was sitting in the driver's seat: "Minzhi, get out of the car and follow me to do my work."

After he finished speaking, he got out of the car first.

"Where are you going?" Han Xizhen asked in surprise.

However, Han Meiyan, who was sitting in the back seat, did not ask this question. She leaned forward, pulled out an umbrella from her map bag, handed it to An Rusong, and said, "Take the umbrella."

An Rusong took the umbrella first, and when he was about to open it, he seemed to have thought of something. He handed the umbrella back to Han Meiyan and said, "No need for an umbrella."

As he spoke, he smiled mysteriously and added: "It works better without an umbrella."

After saying that, he closed the car door and walked towards the front of the car with big strides. Luo Minzhi didn't know what he was going to do, but he still followed him faithfully.

(End of this chapter)