|
Korea FTA gets effective date, but controversy lingers
Story Date: 2/22/2012
| |
Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 2/22/12
After years of negotiations — and a Presidents’ Day weekend spent hammering out the details of implementation — finally U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk has announced that the U.S.-Korea trade agreement will take effect on March 15.
On that date, almost 80 percent of U.S. exports of industrial products to Korea, and nearly two-thirds of U.S. agricultural products, will become duty-free. The agreement also includes a number of non-tariff measures that will come into force, and strengthened protections for intellectual property rights.
The agreement calls for tariffs on U.S. beef imported by Korea to drop from 40 percent to zero over 15 years, and duties on U.S. pork, which range from 22.5 percent to 25 percent, to be phased out over two years starting Jan. 1, 2014. Industry groups estimate that U.S. beef exports to South Korea could double to $1.8 billion annually, while prospects for pork and poultry exports will also improve.
It ain't over
The existence of an effective date, however, does not end controversy over the agreement. South Korea is preparing for elections this year: The country’s parliamentary elections are in April, and the presidential election is in December, a rare year in which both major elections are scheduled. All 299 legislative seats are up for consideration, and as the Korean president can only serve one, five-year term, a new political leader also is guaranteed.
Korean politics are a multi-party affair; at this point, members of the most prominent challenger, the Democratic United Party, are seeking favor with the voters by criticizing the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, and vowing to repeal or at least revise parts of it.
Actually re-opening the U.S.-Korea pact is unlikely, as a panel on legislative affairs explained to attendees of the National Meat Association’s annual convention in Tucson last week.
“I would just remind people … it’s difficult to get the other country to want to renegotiate,” Mike Brown, president of the National Chicken Council, said.
Possible warning signs
Still, even if the FTA itself would be difficult to revisit, unhappiness in Korea over the pact is likely to have ramifications for the agriculture industries in this country, Brown noted.
“It’s a good indication [of] the challenges we’d have in trade overall from an ag standpoint,” he said.
The Korean parliamentary elections are scheduled for April 11.
For more stories, go to http://www.meatingplace.com/.
|
|
|
|
