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Screen Quota Cut Clears Way for Trade Deal With U.S.

Korea has cleared the last hurdle on the road to long-awaited free trade talks with the U.S. by agreeing to slash a screen quota designed to stem a flood of Hollywood blockbusters by half. The country will cut the quota from the current 146 days or 40 percent reserved for domestic films to 73 days or 20 percent in July. With that, a date for the start of talks on a Korea-U.S. free trade agreement will be announced next week.

"A ministerial meeting in the morning decided that the domestic film industry has acquired the competitiveness to be recognized on the global stage and that the screen quota has to be cut in half", Finance Minister Han Duck-soo told reporters on Thursday. Korean movies have consistently taken more than 50 percent of the local film market over the last five years and saw their share grow to 60 percent in the last two.

Seoul has now accommodated all the preconditions the U.S. has set, including a delay in emission limits for U.S.-made cars and resuming imports of American beef. The start date of talks is to be announced after a public hearing on Feb. 2. Once the two allies conclude an FTA and scrap tariffs and customs duties, it will give Korea ready access to the biggest market in the world and remove almost all difference between the two markets.

The government promises to announce alternative support measures for the domestic film industry on Friday. "The government will actively support the film industry so that it grows into the nation's flagship industry. It's my personal opinion that if we continue to support the industry to the point where domestic movies are shown for nearly 100 days, it cannot hurt the industry that much", Han said.

But a group of directors, actors and movie professionals aiming to protect the quota, the Coalition for Cultural Diversity in Moving Images, was defiant. "The government's decision to reduce the screen quota in the name of the FTA is an anti-cultural coup that will ruin Korean movies", the coalition said. "We will never accept the unilateral decision". Film distributors were more accommodating, saying Korean movies are competitive enough not to suffer from the reduced quota.

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