농산물시장개방과 농업농촌문제의 심화

Abstract

This paper analyzed the process of agricultural market opening since the late 1980s, and its affects on agricultural-rural problems. Agricultural market liberalization in Korea was driven by the structural change of Korean economy and the external-internal pressure to market opening. While the Uruguay Round of GATT was the external pressure, however, the contracts of free trade agreement like Korea-Chile FTA and Korea-U.S. FTA were the domestic choices or pressures from Korean economic world. In order to cope the new opening challenge, Korean government aimed to enhance international competitiveness of Korean agriculture by the structural adjustment policies. However, it failed to strengthen the competitive power of Korean agriculture, but caused aggravation of agricultural-rural problems such as rapid decrease of rural population, environmental deterioration, fall in prices owing to overproduction of agricultural products, widening the gap among farmers. This paper also suggested basic reform of the paradigm of agricultural policies for rehabilitating the Korean agriculture and rural society.