By Shim Jae-yun
Sports Editor

The United States has in place much legislation, including the Jones Act, to protect its shipbuilding industry. Passed in 1920, the Jones Act stipulates that only vessels built and owned by U.S. companies can transport people and goods in U.S. national waters.

Trade Minister Kim Hyun-jong revealed recently that the U.S. had pressed Korea to open its rice market during the hard-fought KORUS Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations. But the Korean delegation successfully fought back by demanding that the U.S. do away with the Jones Act, a representative protectionist U.S. trade law.

The Korean delegates' tactic of raising the Jones Act issue was a prudent move, given that South Korea is now the world's No 1 shipbuilding nation with many companies equipped with a sharp competitive edge.

According to the Korea Shipbuilders' Association, 100 of the 195 large cargo vessels in the U.S. _ 51.3 percent _ are subject to the Jones act.

Kim can be criticized for making the statement as it could provoke the U.S. at a sensitive time when the KORUS free trade accord awaits approval from the congresses of the two countries and the two sides are still engaged in a war of nerves over the historic accord.

On the other hand, domestic rice and beef markets need to be protected from a sudden opening as they remain fragile, especially in price competitiveness.

Until recent times, rice was the nation's main industry. Rice has been a staple food for Koreans since they began living on the Korean peninsula millennia ago. It still provides a living for about 2.5 million farmers. Rice is a near-perfect food with various nutrients not found in wheat, which is more commonly eaten in the West.

Korea's rice industry is labor intensive and highly productive, providing rich harvests from a small area. It is the backbone of Korea's food culture. It also plays a major role in guaranteeing food security as Korea produces only 27 percent of the grains it consumes with the exception of rice.

Rice growing has also helped protect the environment and cope with droughts and landslides during the rainy season as rice paddies serve as reservoirs.

There is also a serious cultural aspect to opening the beef market. As Koreans engage in labor-intensive agriculture with limited land, cattle are essential for plowing and pulling carts. In the past they were regarded as the No. 1 household treasure. As a result, it was impossible to imagine slaughtering cattle to eat except once they had became old and useless.

Until the 1980s, people called universities ''ugoltap," meaning ''towers made of cattle bones," instead of the common name of ''ivory tower." Now anyone can go to university easily if he or she wants as the number of colleges and universities has increased dramatically over the past decade. But back in the 1980s, having a child enter a university was a very special event for a household.

When a son or daughter went to university, parents in farming areas would sometimes sell their precious cattle to pay the university fees, a phenomenon which gave rise to the university's nickname of ''ugoltap.''

In Europe and America, people used to slaughter cows or bulls ahead of winter as they needed the nutrients found in meat that are not available in wheat. Korean people instead made ''kimchang" (kimchi to be eaten during the winter period). But they didn't kill their cattle for food.

The pattern of growing rice and raising cattle has changed in Korea with rapid industrialization and mechanization. Due to limited land, agricultural production is being hampered and the possible flood of low-priced rice and beef resulting from a free trade deal would mean a total collapse of farming areas.

However, the opening of the rice and beef markets would benefit consumers, as they would be able to enjoy high-quality Californian rice and Texan beef at low prices.

As seen in the exodus of people to the countryside during traditional holidays such as Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving Day) and Sollal (Luna New Year's Day), Koreans have strong ties to the rural areas where their parents live. Many believe they should not push their parents and relatives in the rural areas into collapse just so that they can eat cheap rice and beef.

Korea's faming sector has largely been marginalized because of urbanization and industrialization over the past several decades. In the process, the rice and beef industries, in particular, have been protected like plants in a greenhouse.

Despite the need of the farming sector to catch up with rapidly changing times and sharpen its competitive edge, politicians have covered up these problems to win votes. Shortsighted policies based on political considerations have caused the rural areas to suffer from lingering poverty.

Farmers account for 7.1 percent of the total population but they contributed only 2.9 percent to the gross domestic product in 2005.

They received 85 trillion won in assistance from state coffers from 1992 to 2004 and are supposed to get another 119 trillion in the decade beginning 2004.

Now is the time to put all the issues on the table and squarely and honestly deal with them in the wake of the KORUS trade deal.

We need to help farmers compete with their foreign counterparts rather than provide them with shelters created by government assistance. What is needed is a carefully prepared, long-term plan to help them cope with the changed situation.

Ships built by U.S. companies in accordance with the Jones Act transport about 1 billion tons (equivalent to $400 billion) a year while carrying some 100 million passengers, accounting for 97 percent of all sea transportation within U.S. boundaries. All told, the Jones Act is a formidable bulwark that protects U.S. shipbuilders from competitors.

Thanks to the Jones Act, U.S. companies are able to build and sell vessels that cost two or three times more than those of foreign competitors. If that protective measure were lifted, Korea's shipbuilders would take the lion's share of the U.S. shipbuilding market very quickly.

Because of its economic strength, the U.S. has been able to maintain a series of protectionist trade laws while Korea has not been able to do the same thing.

The U.S. congress and rice and cattle industries have joined hands to press Korea to open its markets further. We need to reflect on whether we are prepared for the possible further opening of the markets in the near future.