Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 3/28/18


Today’s announcement that the U.S. and South Korea have agreed on changes to the existing U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) is a relief to a U.S. meat industry dependent on exports to key markets like South Korea.   

“The announcement of a successfully revised KOForRUS trade agreement comes as excellent news for the U.S. beef and pork industries because it helps ensure that we will continue to be able serve the growing South Korean market and a critically important customer base,” U.S. Meat Export Federation spokesman Joe Schuele told Meatingplace. 

The United States is the largest supplier of beef to Korea and trails only the European Union as the second-largest pork supplier. U.S. red meat exports to Korea set a record last year of $1.7 billion, up 19 percent year-over-year and up 69 percent from 2012.

Under KORUS, most U.S. pork products now enter Korea duty free. The duty on U.S. beef has been reduced from 40 percent to 21.3 percent and will continue to decline each year until it is eliminated by 2026.

“It is especially important that these tariff rate reductions are maintained,” said Schuele, “because the other major pork and beef suppliers to Korea also have free trade agreements with similar market access terms.”

The U.S. and South Korea reached an agreement in principle to amend a decade-old free-trade pact in what the Los Angeles Times called a “modest” victory for President Donald Trump and the first such deal under his toughened approach to America's economic partners.

Under the deal, South Korea agreed to limit its steel exports to the United States and made concessions on auto imports. In return, the U.S. agreed to exempt South Korea from the 25 percent tariff on steel that Trump announced this month.

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