U.S. Dairy Export Council statement on Korea’s signing of the Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement:
“USDEC applauded the news that the Korean government has ratified the Korea - U.S. FTA (KORUS). The U.S. approved the KORUS FTA in October and has been waiting for Korea to similarly pass the agreement through its legislature before proceeding with FTA implementation discussions with Korea.
“Now that Korea has approved the KORUS FTA, the U.S. will swiftly move to work on ironing out the FTA implementation details needed to ensure that Korea is prepared to abide fully by all commitments in the FTA as soon as it is activated. Following this process, activation of the KORUS FTA is expected to take place in 2012, most likely by mid to late spring.
“USDEC will be working closely with USTR and USDA to ensure that the dairy-related terms of the KORUS FTA are implemented in keeping with both the letter and spirit of the agreement. Similarly processes are currently underway already with respect to Colombia and Panama, which had both previously approved their FTAs with the U.S. All three agreements offer valuable new opportunities for U.S. dairy exports and USDEC is pleased to see all three now prepared to move forward.”
Editor’s note: USDEC expects the agreement to net $380 million per year in dairy exports in the first few years after implementation.
