The U.S.-Korea free trade agreement (FTA), often called KORUS, entered force on March 15, 2012, giving the United States more open access to Korea’s $1 trillion economy and 49 million consumers. Three short years later, this FTA is being heralded as a success by the agriculture industry and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), with U.S. agricultural exports to Korea growing 31.2 percent last year – seven times faster than average agriculture export growth with the rest of the world. 

Prior to the FTA, the United States had a relatively open market for corn in Korea, but the agreement locked in zero tariffs and negated the country’s ability to reinstate tariffs at higher levels. It also created new opportunities for U.S. sorghum, barley and other value-added co-products.

Active in Korea since 1972, the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) was a part of the FTA implementation process undertaken by USTR and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“Korea’s corn imports reached an all-time high of 10.2 million metric tons (401.6 million bushels) in 2014, with imports of coarse grains and other feed ingredients also climbing to a new record of 12.7 million tons (500 million bushels),� said USGC Director of Korea Byong Ryol Min. “Of feed corn imports, which make up 80 percent of Korea’s total corn imports, 53 percent was from the United States.

“While this isn’t a record amount of U.S. corn imports to Korea, it helps demonstrate the importance of barrier-free trade between the United States and Korea.�

As KORUS implementation anniversary also highlights the importance of trade agreements to opening markets. Two potentially landmark multilateral agreements – the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with Pacific Rim countries and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) with the European Union – are underway but could be stymied by a lack of trade promotion authority (TPA), which allows U.S. negotiators to finalize agreements for Congressional approval.