The Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association (SSGA) welcomed today’s announcement of a free trade agreement between Canada and the Republic of Korea. SSGA President, Harold Martens, said today “This agreement opens the door to rebuilding what was a $40 million market for Canadian beef prior to the BSE crisis of 2003.”
“Back in 2002, Korea was the fourth largest export market for Canadian beef,” added Martens.
Martens explained that rebuilding Canada’s beef trade with Korea has been a lengthy process involving years of diligent effort on the part of Canada’s beef industry organizations and the federal government.
“Korea lifted its BSE related barriers to Canadian beef in 2012. However, a restrictive 40% tariff on fresh and frozen beef continued to frustrate our exports to Korea. Last year’s Canadian beef sales to Korea sales came in at 1,116 tonnes of product worth $7.8 million.”
“The agreement announced today will see the tariff on fresh and frozen beef eliminated entirely in a staged process over the next fifteen years,” reported Martens, “each year going forward will see the competitive position of our products improve in Korea.”
“Unfortunately, the Americans were a few years ahead of Canada in negotiating a fifteen-year tariff reduction scheme with Korea, so there will be some lag time involved in fully levelling the playing field,” said Martens. “However, an assessment of recent trading trends suggests Canadian beef can be competitive with the product from other countries even when we have a slight tariff disadvantage.”
For some categories of Canadian beef products, tariff reductions will occur more quickly, noted Martens. Tariffs on fats and tallows will be fully eliminated as soon as the agreement comes into effect. And, the current 18% duty on what are referred to as offals will be eliminated over the next 11 years. Offal products include certain organ meats which are not typically purchased by North American consumers but are popular ingredients for barbecue cooking in Korea.
Martens said, “Having the ability to get every piece of the animal to its highest value market will help maximize prices at the farm gate here in Saskatchewan.”
“On behalf of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers, I thank Prime Minister Harper and Ministers Gerry Ritz and Ed Fast for their efforts on behalf of free trade in beef with Korea,” concluded Martens.
The SSGA is a province-wide member driven advocacy organization representing independent, self-reliant cattle producers’ interests for 100 years. The SSGA advocates through education, communication, and research for an economically and environmentally sustainable cattle industry where cattlemen are free to do business– within a free and open marketplace, free from industry limiting laws and regulation.
[highlight align=”left” style=”default”]Tell us what you think of the trade deal with Korea.[/highlight]
