South Korea: Long-awaited reduction in tariffs on frozen saury for bait by Jeju fishermen

Tariffs on imported frozen saury, used as bait for cutlassfish, will be cut. The government recently held an emergency economic and public livelihood meeting and decided to cut tariffs on imported frozen saury, which is widely used as bait for hairtail fishing, from May. Instead of the 24% adjusted tariff currently applied to frozen saury, the basic tax rate will be reduced to 10% only for hairtail fishing bait. In the meantime, Jeju Island and the Jeju Island Fishing Boat Owners Association have been continuously asking the government to lower tariffs on imported frozen saury as the continuous rise in the price of bait, which accounts for a large portion of the cost of fishing hairtail, is a great burden on fishery management. The government has been sticking with adjusted tariffs to protect the domestic ocean industry, but decided to lower tariffs only for baits by accepting the distribution management plan for saury for baits proposed by Jeju Island and fishermen's ...