January 13, 2004

South Korea Maintains Ban On Canadian Beef

South Korea will maintain its ban on Canadian beef until international quarantine guidelines guarantee consumer safety.

A Canadian delegation headed by Bob Speller, Canada's agriculture minister, visited Huh Sang-man, Korea's minister of agriculture and forestry, yesterday to discuss a process of reopening the Korean market to Canadian beef.

The Canadian delegation asked the Korean counterpart to scrap its ban on Canadian beef imports, saying that Canada would boost spending on measures to better survey and track the cattle industry as part of a campaign to combat mad cow disease.

However, Agriculture Minister Huh said Korea would not accommodate the proposal because the main priority lies in the health of Koreans.

Last May, Korea banned all beef and cow part imports from Canada after a case of mad cow disease was discovered there.

There have only been two cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy diagnosed in Canada. The first case was found in 1993 in a cow that had been imported from Britain in 1987. The second case was reported on May 20 last year.

Korea imported 4,545 tons of Canadian beef during the first five months of last year before the import ban, which is valued at $1.7 million.