'Hanwoo, Yukwoo, Hanwoo Calves, Nokdu' Meet 2024 FTA Damage Compensation Direct Payment Support Criteria

Notification of Target Items and Direct Payment after Objection Procedures

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on the 12th that it will conduct an administrative notice for 22 days (May 13 to June 3) regarding the draft announcement for the selection of target items for the 2024 Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Damage Compensation Direct Payment (including import contribution).

The FTA Damage Compensation Direct Payment system is a program that compensates farmers and others for part of the price decline suffered by items affected by increased imports due to the implementation of free trade agreements.

Items are selected as eligible for support when three conditions are simultaneously met: total import volume by item, import volume from FTA partner countries, and domestic price. Every year, based on the survey and analysis results from the Korea Rural Economic Institute’s FTA Implementation Support Center (hereinafter referred to as the Support Center), a process of collecting opinions is conducted. The damage compensation direct payment (hereinafter referred to as the direct payment) is paid to farmers who have cultivated or raised the relevant items before the FTA effective date with the importing country, considering the import contribution (the extent to which increased imports due to the free trade agreement have affected the price decline), within 95% of the price decline compared to the reference price in the current year’s domestic price.

In 2024, a total of 106 items (42 monitoring items and 64 items applied for by farmers and others) were surveyed and analyzed. As a result, four items?Hanwoo (Korean native cattle), beef cattle, Hanwoo calves, and mung beans?met the selection criteria for eligible support items. The import contribution for each item was calculated as 29.3% for Hanwoo and beef cattle, 37.9% for Hanwoo calves, and 58.7% for mung beans, after verification by the Import Contribution Verification Committee.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will publish the analysis results, eligible support items, and import contributions on its website and will accept objections from May 13 to June 3.

If objections are raised, the Ministry will review their validity and, after deliberation by the Support Committee for farmers and others in June, plans to announce the eligible items for the 2024 FTA Damage Compensation Direct Payment. In the second half of the year, after the application process by farmers and others and verification by local governments, the direct payments will be made to farmers and others.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.