한ㆍ미 FTA와 낙농산업의 과제

Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and Problems of Dairy Industry

Korea failed in building proper tariff barriers for the formulated butter and mixed milk powder which are strong fungibles for butter and milk powder, respectively. As a result, manufactured dairy products lost markets. And this in fact confined domestic dairy farming to fluid milk production. However, the feasibility of import of fluid milk is gradually increasing. Furthermore, Korea-U.S. FTA is now under way and the import of dairy products from America is expected to increase when the negotiation is settled. And U.S. is particularly interested in Korean cheese market. But cheese is one of rare dairy products the demand of which is rapidly growing. So it is desirable for Korean dairy industry to increase cheese production instead of milk powder and butter using the raw milk in excess of fluid use. For the production of cheese, however, institutional supports as well as dairy reform is prerequisite.