By Bob Tkacz
For the Journal

Alaska isn't the only salmon producer that has noticed South Korea's seafood shortage; and just as fish packers here are breaking into the market a new hurdle has been set across their path. A bilateral trade agreement signed last year between South Korea and Chile will eliminate all import tariffs between the two countries by 2009.

Korea's tariff on fresh Chilean salmon, now 13.3 percent on CIF (cost insurance and freight) value, will drop to 10 percent next year, 3.3 percent in 2008 and disappear in 2009. Its import tax on frozen Chilean salmon, now 8.3 percent, follows a slightly different schedule, falling to 3.3 percent in 2007 and 1.7 percent in 2008, before also bottoming out in 2009.

Outside the Chilean agreement, Korean general tariffs for 2004 and 2005 on salmon are 10 percent for frozen product and 20 percent for fresh, chilled, smoked and other product forms, according to its listings on the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation organization's tariff database.

"Because this is South Korea's only negotiated FTA (free trade agreement), Chilean exports will benefit from exclusive tariff reductions. This is particularly valid in fishing, mining, forestry, agricultural, industrial and agro-industrial products, where Chile can afford an attractive offer," said K.S. Kim, Alaska's trade representative in Seoul.

The agreement reduces tariffs on 224 agricultural and manufactured Chilean products, representing more than 80 percent of Chilean exports, Kim added.

Although the agreement was signed in February 2003, little impact was visible in grocery seafood cases earlier this year. Fresh and frozen Norwegian farmed fillets, dips and chowders could be found in many supermarkets in Seoul and Busan in May, but store clerks indicated they aren't very popular. No wild Alaska salmon was available at that time of year, but there was also no Chilean product visible.

"We haven't seen much Chilean salmon here at all," said Susan Phillips, deputy director of the U.S. Agriculture Trade Office in Seoul, in an Aug. 16 e-mail.

"This new agreement would appear to create more challenges for the Alaska industry's competitive position in South Korea," said K.C. Dochtermann, Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute international marketing director.