March 21, 2008

South Korea to lift import tariffs on 70 products, including corn and wheat

South Korea on Thursday (March 21, 2008) announced an emergency decision to lift import tariffs on 70 price-sensitive products including wheat and corn.

The decision was made at a meeting of economic ministers chaired by President Lee Myung-Bak to look at ways to curb rising inflation.

The meeting concluded that prices of oil and other raw materials have risen sharply and agreed to identify 50 major products for intensive oversight, Presidential spokesman Lee Dong-Kwan told reporters.

The government will finalize a package of inflation-taming measures next week, he said.

Inflation reached an annual rate of 3.6 percent in February, breaching the central bank's target range for the third month in a row.

South Korea has few natural resources and has suffered due to rising global commodity prices as imports became more expensive. This was worsened further by the fact that the won has weakened against the US dollar when other currencies were strengthening.