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Korea FTA will bring duty reductions on beef, pork

March 15th was recently announced as the implementation date for the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

U.S. Meat Export Federation economist Erin Borror says the agreement will bring significant duty reductions on U.S. beef and pork.

Borror says South Korea’s 40 percent duty on U.S. beef will be phased out over 15 years, declining by 2.7 percent each year until 2026.

“So as you can imagine we’ll see quite the benefit, especially when duties drop closer to 15 percent and below by around 2020,” Borror says.

And Borror notes that the U.S. is the only major beef supplier to have reached such an agreement with Korea, which means the U.S. beef industry’s competitive advantage in that market will increase over time.

Borror says Korea’s pork duties will be reduced on a much faster schedule. 

“Duties on the most commonly traded items, which are frozen pork muscle cuts, are currently 25 percent—and upon implementation will be reduced to 16 percent—and completely eliminated by 2016,” she says.

Borror says that schedule will provide the U.S. with an advantage over most pork export competitors.

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