U.S. Settles Beef With South Korea

The United States averted a possible trade war with South Korea by settling a 17-month dispute over Korean barriers to American beef and pork exports.

U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor said Thursday the new deal could mean as much as $240 million in increased sales immediately for American beef and pork producers and as much as $1 billion in higher annual sales by the year 1999.

“The importance of this agreement to the tens of thousands of American workers in our beef and pork industries across all 50 states is manifest,” Kantor said. He noted that South Korea already represents America’s third-largest market for beef and fourth-largest market for all U.S. farm products.

Unlike the recent bitter auto fight with Japan, the Clinton administration took advantage of the newly created World Trade Organization to help resolve the issue, before announcing threatened sanctions.

“Our two governments have demonstrated that, using the tools of the WTO, we can achieve a mutually acceptable result,” Kantor said.