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South Korea will work to bolster its communication with the United States on sanitary and phytosanitary procedures (SPS) for agricultural imports as part of efforts to improve trade conditions between the two countries, the agriculture minister said on Thursday. 

"That is why we are newly creating the U.S. desk under the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA) ... to create a contact point with Washington," Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryung said in a regular press briefing, reports Yonhap news agency.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will also make efforts to advance its scientific capabilities in risk assessments of fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products from foreign countries, including the U.S., she added, unveiling the government's plan to apply artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the SPS.

Song's remarks came after Seoul agreed to improve its SPS for agricultural imports in a trade deal with the Donald Trump administration as the U.S. side raised various issues related to agro-livestock trade between the two countries.

In the deal, which lowered Washington's reciprocal tariff rate for Korea to 15 percent from the initially proposed 25 percent, the Korean government safeguarded other contentious issues, such as requests to lift Seoul's import ban on American beef products from cattle aged 30 months or older and expand rice imports from the U.S.

Regarding speculation that Korea may streamline its SPS, Song said the current eight-step procedure cannot be simplified as it is an "international arrangement," but that Seoul and Washington could speed up the process by better communicating with each other.

For example, the APQA is currently in the second stage of analyzing the potential risks of importing American apples and the sixth stage of such procedures for importing potatoes cultivated in 11 U.S. states.

"We can enhance our communication (with the U.S.) on such ongoing procedures," Song told the briefing.

She also explained that Seoul is already set to apply a zero percent tariff on 97.8 percent of 1,591 agricultural products from the U.S. by 2031 under the countries' bilateral free trade agreement (FTA).

"What I felt throughout the tariff negotiations with the U.S. is that in order for a small country like us to survive, we should diversify our export destinations rather than focusing on the U.S., Chinese and Japanese markets as we have done until now," Song said, noting the pressure on Korea to lift its trade barriers will likely continue in the future.

"We weathered the storm this time ... but we should work to fundamentally bolster the competitiveness of our (agro-livestock) industry, because someday, we may have to lift all of our non-tariff trade barriers."