One of the main reasons the US Congress and the Obama administration approved the 2011 US-Korea (KORUS) free-trade agreement was the expected benefits to US agricultural exports. However, six years later, those benefits have not materialized, according to globaltrademag.com. US agricultural exports to South Korea have fallen 9 percent since 2011, coming in at 6.9 billion dollars last year. To add insult to injury, South Korean agricultural exports to the US have surged, up 62 percent to 748 million dollars last year.
It looks like a trade agreement that has been a dismal disappointment for the US economy and a big success for the Korean economy, gobaltrademag.com tells. The US trade deficit with Korea has doubled in five years, reaching 27 billion dollar last year. On the positive side of the ledger, beef and beef products have risen substantially, up 56 percent to 1.06 billion dollars, while fruit and vegetable exports have risen 42 percent to 672 million dollars.
Korean economic growth since the 1950s was achieved with strong state support for exports and restrictions on imports. Those policies are still in effect. Many in the US think that the only solution is to renegotiate KORUS.
