WTO Approves South Korea's 513% Rice Tariff

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on Jan. 28 that the World Trade Organization (WTO) issued a certificate on Jan. 24 to approve South Korea’s 513 percent rice tariff.

“The issuance of the certificate means that the five countries that called South Korea’s rice tariffication into question in November last year, including the United States and China, withdrew their objections and it is now qualified to impose the tariff,” the ministry explained.

The ministry’s WTO negotiations for the rice tariffication started in 2015 and the procedure finished in November last year with the tariff rate fixed at 513 percent.