Central coast wine makers welcome Korean trade agreement

CENTRAL COAST, CALIF- South Korea is considered a sophisticated and significant wine consuming market. And soon, Koreans could be sipping wine created from the grapes off of Central Coast vineyards.

The new new Free Trade Agreement calls for the immediate removal of a 15 percent Korean tariff on California wine and 45 percent import duty on grape juice concentrate.
 
Korean excise, value-added and other taxes on California wines will also be lowered making the products more attractive and affordable to Korean consumers.

California accounts for 90 percent of all U.S. wine exports to South Korea which totaled about 500,000 cases last year worth just over $11 million last year.

"It also levels the playing field with countries like Chile as well as the wine producing nations in the EU that all have free trade agreements with Korea and have seen their exports sales increase as a result of those free trade agreements", says Linsey Gallagher of the California Wine Institute, "so now California and the rest of the U.S. is at par with the rest of those wine producing regions for exports going into Korea."

Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and China remain the top destinations for California wine exports.

Wine consumption in Korea has grown by more than 175% in the past ten years.

The new trade agreement is expected to make California wines more competitive in the growing Korean market.

Last year there was a record $1.14 billion in total wine exports from California.