WTO/DDA 농업협상 동향과 이에 따른 단기소득임산물의 관세감축 영향

The Trends of Agricultural Market Access on WTO/DDA Negotiations and the Impacts on Tariff Reduction of Non-timber Products in Korea

On July 2008, major trading countries have reached a tentative agreement through a ministerial trade deal to facilitate WTO/DDA negotiation. In this study, we intended to document and introduce the core issues of the agreement. According to the modalities of the agricultural section in the agreement, it was agreed to reduce the tariff on non-timber forest products. Thus, we also analyzed the impacts of the tariff reduction on non-timber forest product markets to support basic information for developing adequate WTO/DDA negotiation tactics. Changes of tariff for major non-timber products were analyzed based on the bound rates. The results indicated that there would be a significant reduction in tariff for non-timber forest products, no matter what kind of the position of members were assigned to Korea. For jujube, the 611.5% of tariff was applied now, but it would declined to 183.5% with the position of developed members, or 326.1% with the position of developing members. Also, tariff for walnuts was 219% now, but declined to 65.8% with the position of developed members, or 117% with the position of developing members. For mushroom, 90% of tariff was applied now, but it would also declined to 27% with the position of developed members, or 51.6% with the position of developing members. Overall, due to the large tariff reduction according to the tentative agreement, it is expected to have significant impacts on the non-timber forest products market in Korea.