‘Quota Tariff’ US Tangerine Imports Jump… Tariff-Free Starting Next Year

As tariffs on American tangerines (mandarins) are scheduled to be abolished starting next year under the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the government’s quota tariff policy has led to a sharp increase in imports last year. Criticism has been raised that the government has taken the lead in opening up the import market by applying excessive quota tariffs to items that can directly compete with domestic tangerines. According to the Korea Customs Service, last year’s mandarin imports were 2,874 tons, nearly five times more than in 2023 (587 tons). Foreign mandarins were first imported into Korea in 2017. At that time, imports were only 0.1 tons, but they have been gradually increasing to 8.4 tons in 2018, 512 tons in 2020, and 529 tons in 2022. The sudden surge in mandarin imports last year, which had been only about 500 tons per year since 2020, is analyzed to be due to the lower tariffs caused by the Korea-US FTA and the government's application of quota tariffs in the ...