Trade Minister Mark Vaile today welcomed Australia’s win in the World Trade Organisation on beef exports to Korea.

"This is a very good outcome for Australian beef exporters, who for several years have faced a tightly regulated and restrictive market for imported beef in Korea, Australia’s 3^rd largest beef market," Mr Vaile said.

Overnight the WTO’s Appellate Body rejected Korea's appeal against earlier findings by a WTO Panel that its beef retail system discriminated against imported beef.

On July 31 this year, a WTO panel upheld a complaint by Australia and the United States that Korea’s measures on imported beef were contrary to WTO rules.  The measures include a requirement that imported beef be sold separately from Korean beef; subsidies to Korea’s beef producers; minimum wholesale pricing; limitations on which private sector operators can buy and sell imported beef; and discriminatory labelling and record-keeping requirements.

Korea challenged only two of these findings: retail sale requirements and subsidies.  The Appellate Body rejected Korea's claims regarding retail sale. However, the Appellate Body overturned the Panel's finding that in the late 1990s Korea gave excessive levels of subsidies to its beef farmers.

Mr Vaile said he was very pleased that Korea must now remove the measures that impede the distribution and sale of Australian beef in the Korean market. The finding on subsidies, while a little disappointing, was not a key issue and does not overturn the important market access win for Australia.

"The findings will be adopted by the Members of the WTO next month and we’ll be looking for Korea to quickly bring its measures into compliance with WTO rules.

"As with Australia’s recent win in the lamb dispute against the US, this case demonstrates the value of WTO rules and its dispute settlement system to Australian exporters," Mr Vaile said.

"The outcome again demonstrates the value of cooperation between exporters and government to ensure the WTO rules are working in Australia's favour. Our beef industry made a valuable contribution to the outcome in this dispute." Mr Vaile said.

Contact:  Bruce Mills 02 6277 7420