THE OLD US TREATY BREAKING RULE IF YOU WANT IT THEN TAKE IT ATTITUDE OF OLD GROWS ITS NEW HEAD - AS S KOREA FTA TO BE REVIEWED EVEN WHEN AGRICULTURE EXPORT HAS GROWN THAT BRINGS ABOUT A CLOSER BALANCE TO THE TRADE DEFICIT

South Korea posted a huge trade deficit with the United States on agricultural products and livestock last year as their price competitiveness has attracted consumers, government data showed Saturday.

South Korea's agricultural goods and meat exports to the U.S.
reached US$716 million last year while imports amounted to $6.9 billion, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Seoul's trade deficit with the U.S. in the sector came in at $6.14 billion in 2016, the data showed.

The data came as the U.S. formally notified South Korea last week that it wants to start the process of revising the free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.

South Korea has said that the trade deal, which went into effect in 2012, has been mutually beneficial. But Washington said it has had a persistent goods deficit with South Korea for nearly two decades.

Seoul's imports of U.S. agricultural goods such as corn and wheat reached $4.3 billion last year. It imported livestock, including beef and pork, worth $1.8 billion, it showed.

Beef topped the list of import goods from the U.S. with $1.03 billion in imports. Its market share came in at 48.4 percent in the January-May period, followed by that of Australian beef with 42.8 percent.

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