U.S. beef takes up 50% of imported market share: KITA

Описание: 한미FTA 효과: 미국산 쇠고기, 14년만 수입점유율 50% 돌파

U.S. beef now accounts for more than half of imports to Korea.
A level not seen in close to a decade and a half.
The trend has been fuelled mainly by the FTA between the two nations.
However, the Trump administration still wants to renegotiate the deal.
Here's Won Jung-hwan with a closer look.
U.S. beef now accounts for more than half of Korea's beef imports for the first time since 2003.
According to the Korea International Trade Association, Koreans bought around 990-million U.S. dollars of U.S beef in the first ten months of this year -- some 50-point-7-percent of the total beef imports during that period.

U.S. beef was popular in the past, making up almost 76 percent of imports in 2003. And recently it's been making a comeback.

(KOREAN)

"It is delicious, but most of all, it's cheap,… it's sells at an affordable price so the general public can enjoy it.

Although the numbers fell when Korea banned imports of U.S. beef due to the mad cow disease outbreak in 2003, slumping to less than 18 percent of imports in 2004, people's views toward U.S. beef issue have improved since the resumption of imports in 2008.

(KOREAN)

"Some people are still a bit reluctant to buy U.S. beef, but I think that the importing process now is more clear and trustworthy, and the negative view of U.S. beef has been lost in recent years."

And since the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement took effect in 2012, the share of U.S. beef has rapidly increased thanks to lower custom tariffs and cheap prices compared to Korean beef.

(KOREAN)

"The Korea-U.S. FTA is one of the reasons. The tariff elimination schedule for the Korea-U.S. FTA and the Korea-Australia FTA are the same, but since the Korea-U.S. FTA came into force two years earlier in 2012, there is 5-point-3-percent tariff gap between the two,… and the tariff rate is expected to continue for the time being"

Ahead of the upcoming Korea-U.S. FTA negotiations, the U.S. has been highlighting the parts of the deal where the U.S. loses out, saying that the total value of U.S. goods exported to Korea fell while U.S. imports of goods from Korea grew.

But when it comes to beef imports, the U.S. beef industry has done very well out of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.
Won Jung-hwan, Arirang News.

Arirang News Facebook:   / arirangtvnews  
------------------------------------------------------------
[Subscribe Arirang Official YouTube]
ARIRANG TV:    / arirang  
ARIRANG RADIO:    / music180arirang  
ARIRANG NEWS:    / arirangnews  
ARIRANG K-POP:    / arirangworld  
ARIRANG ISSUE:    / arirangtoday  
ARIRANG CULTURE:    / arirangkorean  
------------------------------------------------------------
[Visit Arirang TV Official Pages]
Facebook:   / arirangtv  
Twitter:   / arirangworld  
Instagram:   / arirangworld  
Homepage: http://www.arirang.com
------------------------------------------------------------
[Arirang K-Pop]
YouTube:    / arirangworld  
Facebook:   / arirangkpop  
Google+: http://plus.google.com/+arirangworld