Several Free Trade Agreements Announced

Several Free Trade Agreements Announced

Several Free Trade Agreements Announced

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

Last Thursday the U.S.-Korea Trade Agreement entered into force. That means good news for American farmers and ranchers as under this new agreement two-thirds of the tariffs imposed on U.S. food and agricultural products exported to South Korea will be eliminated.

South Korea is consistently a top ten market for U.S. wheat and imported more than 1.6 million tons of U.S. wheat valued at approximately $468 million in the last marketing year.

I spoke with Randy Suess, Washington wheat farmer and chairman of the U.S. Wheat Associates about the recent Trade Agreements. He said Korean tariffs had not been a big barrier, but will allow Korean flour millers to spend less in purchasing U.S. wheat. In addition to the Korean Trade Agreement, two other Trade Agreements have been signed as well -- with Panama and Columbia.

Suess says the most benefit to U.S. wheat farmers will be in the implementation of the Columbian Free Trade Agreement.

Suess: “As far as wheat goes, the big success story was signing the one with Columbia. Because without that Free Trade Agreement, we would have lost out on that market share to Canada as they had already signed a free trade agreement with Columbia. It would have put us at a $45 a metric ton disadvantage. Well, in a day and age that every couple of dollars makes or breaks a sale $45 would have locked us out of that market. So, having that one signed with Columbia was very important to the wheat industry.”

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

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