DPRK imported US$6.2 billion worth of American farm products in 2016
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Amendments to a trade agreement between the United States and South Korea will not change agricultural market access to the Asian nation.
The U.S. exempted South Korea from the tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and South Korea agreed to allow 50,000 cars into the country without meeting local safety standards as part of the updated U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement.
It appears agriculture has been left alone in the changes.
South Korea is the fifth largest importer of American ag products, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. The country imported US$6.2 billion worth of U.S. goods in 2016, with corn and beef making up nearly US$2 billion worth of those imports.
American farmers will still be afforded that access, but it appears unlikely South Korea will expand agricultural market access.
“There will be no further opening of agricultural markets and no changes to the tariffs that had already been lifted,” South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said on March 26, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
State officials are pleased with the Trump administration’s efforts to help American farmers in this trade deal.
“I am pleased to see the administration has made a good trade deal with South Korea,” Deb Fischer, a Nebraska Senator and member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said in a statement today. “This is a step in the right direction that will expand opportunities for our producers and the state of Nebraska.”
Nebraska ranks fifth in the U.S. in terms of ag exports to South Korea. State farmers exported more than US$400 million worth of commodities to the Asian country in 2015, with corn (US$80.6 million) and wheat (US$6.9 million) ranking second and seventh, respectively.
Ruskpp/iStock/Getty Images Plus photo