With the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement pending - Ranking House Ag Committee Member Collin Peterson has some concerns as to whether the agreement would fully reopen the Korean market to U.S. beef…
“I continue to worry about the beef access, given some of the unjust sanitary and phyto-sanitary strictures that keep popping up all the time.”
During the House Ag Committee hearing on free trade agreements Thursday - U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk explained what actions are being taken to assure the deal with South Korea supports full U.S. beef trade…
“We will request consultations with Korea under the 2008 Beef Protocol to discuss the full implementation and application of that agreement after the FTA goes into effect.”
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the benefit of reopening South Korea to full beef trade is the potential ripple effect of other Asian markets being reopened - such as China and Japan. He says the Korean agreement provides a format that could be used as a prototype for agreements with both of those countries.
Vilsack says anytime a free trade agreement is approved and implemented and people see benefits…
“It creates momentum, it creates excitement, it creates enthusiasm for expansion. And so that’s an opportunity for us to redouble our efforts. We’ve been very aggressive in China and Japan, and I think with a little more work and a little more effort we can get more progress there.”
Vilsack says the U.S. has an opportunity - by approving the FTA with South Korea - to show China and Japan that the agreement works and to start a discussion of the possibilities of FTAs with those two countries.
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