An agribusiness trade mission organized by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) is underway in Seoul, South Korea. The trade mission is being led by Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Alexis Taylor.
Highlights from the trade mission’s opening day included tours of an E-Mart Traders Wholesale Club location and a Lotte Mart store – both major sales outlets for U.S. red meat. The U.S. Meat Export Federation helped coordinate the store visits, and trade mission participants observed in-store sampling promotions of U.S. pork and beef at E-Mart Traders. Jihae Yang, USMEF vice president for the Asia Pacific, offers more details in this audio report.
Yang adds that U.S. Embassy staff were also on hand to share their observations about how well-received U.S. red meat products are in the Korean market and how the U.S. industry has successfully regained Korean consumers’ confidence in the safety of U.S. beef. Tariff reductions under the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement have also bolstered consumer demand, as U.S. beef is now subject to just a 5.3% duty that will phase to zero by 2026 (pre-FTA, the rate was 40%). U.S. pork enters Korea duty-free under the FTA. USMEF will also take part in a roundtable discussion with the USDA delegation in which the benefits of the Korea-U.S. FTA will be discussed in detail.
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