For the Greater Good of the County?

Ay....the screen quota issue just won't die a quiet death as I'd hope.
Newest: Candle light vigil on 2-16, and a "camp-out" in front of the US Embassy on 2-17.

In all honesty, it took longer than I had thought to raise the trump card - i.e. attack the notion of so-called US imperialism. Sure there were many references before, but now they seem to speak freely and directly on this subject in the press, calling the USA greedy, wanting to dominate the world's markets. I won't bother to put up the direct quotes here.

First and foremost, I wanna say that I identify myself first as Asian. Yes, an Asian who happens to be living in the USA. So, I have no specific agenda to defend USA in anything. Without going on and on about my thoughts which could take pages, just wanna jot down a few facts here.

Fact: The Korean screen quota, originally established in the 1960's when Korean's movie industry was but just an unknown dot in Asialand. The legal documents, revised in 1998 says in stark black and white , states that when Korean movies reaches 40% of the local market share, that the quota would be abolished. That was the agreed upon benchmark which was supposed to mark the end of the need for protectionsim.

Fact: The wild success of Korean movies has met that 40% number consistently since 2000, and further upclimbing to an astonishing 59-68% (depending on who you quote) of the market share in 2005.

Fact: Korea's economy is 70% dependent on foreign trade.

Fact: Based on 2005 stats, Korea is USA's 7th trading partner in terms of volume/value. USA is Korea's 3rd largest trading partner. Since 2003, monthly trade surpluses by Korea in US ranges from $2-3 billion US dollars. That's monthly, folks. US is unable to gain on the Korean market due to strict quotas on autos, agriculture, movies, etc. (US, being greedy or just trying to level the playing field a bit?)

Fact: It's called a BILATERAL talk/free trade agreement. The Korean government would not have come to the table if FTA were not felt to be for the greater good of the country.

Fact: Traditionally the entertainment sector weathers the storms of economic downturns better than other businesses, but simply put, a healthy economy generally translates to healthy movie box office numbers. If I don't have a job, I certainly ain't going to the sunday matinee.

Quoted from an older Korean Herald article,
"The domestic movie industry should come up with a persuasive logic for protecting the system, or offer at least some concessions. Inside the movie circles, some alternative measures are being discussed, but the problem is that nobody wants to propose such possible solutions openly for fear of enraging some anti-quota people," Kim said.

For everyone's sakes, hope that, rather than standing firm and fixed on an idea of "all or nothing", all involved will just come to the table and negotiate a compromise. What's that old cliche? Give a little to gain a yard.
Here's hoping for an amicable end to this controvery...