USA Rice Applauds South Korea Approval of Rice Import Deal

SEOUL, November 28, 2005 — The Korean National Assembly voted 139-61, Wednesday, Nov. 23, to ratify the agreement with the World Trade Organization that extends special treatment for rice for an additional 10 years, despite intense opposition from Korea’s rice farmers.

“This agreement is immensely important for the U.S. rice industry and California producers in particular because it guarantees at least 50,000 tons annually in exports to Korea over the next ten years,” said Michael Rue, a California rice producer and chairman of the USA Rice Federation’s Asia Trade Policy Subcommittee.

Because of its agreement with the United States, Korea will nearly double total rice imports to 408,700 tons by 2014; establish country-specific tariff rate quotas for key suppliers; expand the amount of imported rice that can be marketed to Korean end users; and hold a mid-term multilateral review in 2009.

“The members of USA Rice Federation appreciate all the hard work U.S. Trade Ambassador Rob Portman and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and their staffs invested in persevering and seeing this agreement through,” Rue said. “We’re now ready to work with the administration to urge Korea to begin tendering for this year’s rice imports.”

Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials expect that it will take at least one month to initiate and complete the tendering process to import rice under the agreement.

“The implementation of this agreement will provide long-sought improvements in meaningful market access to Korea by allowing a portion of U.S. exports to be marketed directly to Korea’s consumers,” said Rue.

Until 2001, Korea’s imports of U.S. rice were erratic and small, and most imports ended up in government stocks. Korea did not begin sustained imports of U.S. rice until 2001, when the government imported 16,585 tons, nearly all medium-grain from California.

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Bob Cummings, (703) 236-1473, rcummings@usarice.com

USA Rice Federation is the national advocate for all segments of the rice industry, conducting activities to influence government programs, developing and initiating programs to increase worldwide demand for U.S. rice, and providing other services to increase profitability for all industry segments.