Korea’s Yoon vetoes legislation for government to buy surplus rice from farmers

[Photo by Yonhap]

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday vetoed a contentious bill requiring the government to purchase surplus rice, the first such move in about seven years, on grounds that it would undermine the country’s agricultural industry.

Yoon rejected the bill to revise the Grain Management Act during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, marking his first veto of a bill since he took office. It has been about seven years since former President Park Geun-hye exercised her right to veto a revision to the National Assembly Act in 2016.

The revision is aimed at requiring the government to purchase surplus rice if the production of the staple surpasses estimated demand by more than 3 percent to 5 percent or if rice prices decline by more than 5 percent to 8 percent from a year earlier. The bill was passed unilaterally by the main opposition Democratic Party on March 23.

“I find it very regrettable that the National Assembly passed the bill unilaterally without a proper debate,” Yoon said. “This revision is a typical populist bill that goes against the government’s goal of boosting farming productivity and raising the incomes of farming households and is of no help to farmers or the development of farming villages.”

Yoon also labeled the Grain Management Act a coercion that forces the government to spend taxpayers’ money to purchase overproduced rice and will ultimately lower the market price of rice and make farming household income more unstable.

Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Chung Hwang-keun told reporters after the Cabinet meeting that the bill will only increase the rice inventory and jack up the government’s expenditure for rice purchases every year to 1.4 trillion won ($1.06 billion) by 2030. “The government’s request for reconsideration of unjust bills is the authority of the executive branch in line with the separation of powers granted by the Constitution,” he stressed.

In response, the main opposition party held a press conference in front of the presidential office and criticized Yoon for “rejecting the bill aimed at normalizing rice prices and ignoring the public’s will.”

If a bill is sent back to the National Assembly, more than two-third of the lawmakers present must vote in favor in order to be passed again. The ruling People Power Party holds 115 seats, more than a third of the seats in the 299-seat National Assembly, making it unlikely the bill will pass again.