Beef Industry Discusses the Importance of KORUS

The U.S. beef industry is the latest in the agriculture community to tell President Trump withdrawing from KORUS, will cost millions of dollars and thousands of jobs.  As the president tries to appeal to blue collar workers in the rust belt who voted for him, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association told the White House, scuttling KORUS is also a ‘job killer’.  NCBA’s trade adviser, Kent Bacus:

“For our people in rural America this means jobs.  And you have to put a face on those jobs.  And a lot of times people will look at trade and they think primarily on manufacturing and services.  They don’t realize how important these trade agreements are to rural America.”

U.S. beef sales in number-two buyer Korea are up over 80% or to around $1 billion under KORUS, as tariffs move to zero over ten-years.  But Bacus claims there’s more.

“Our free trade agreement when in to affect before our leading competitors (Australia), before their agreement went in to affect.  That gives us roughly about an 8% tariff advantage over the Australians for the next ten years.”

Bacus said if the U.S. walks away from KORUS the Koreans could raise the levy on U.S. beef, back to its pre-KORUS 40%.  He added his industry fears a NAFTA-style renegotiation of KORUS could result in gains for other sectors at the expense of farm trade.

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