March 13, 2006

 

USDA posts requirements to export beef to South Korea

 

 

The US Department of Agriculture, in preparation for a resumption of beef exports to South Korea, has published the specifications to which US exporters will have to adhere.

 

South Korea, once the third largest foreign market for US beef, stopped importing completely in December 2003 after the first case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), was discovered here. South Korea imported about US$815 million worth of US beef in 2003, according to USDA data.

 

US and South Korean negotiators reached a preliminary deal in January that would allow exports of US beef products to resume, but only after a detailed process is completed.

 

Under the specifications agreed on by South Korea, US exporters can only ship boneless beef cuts from from cattle slaughtered before they are 30 months old.

 

The list of specified risk material--cattle parts believed to be able to spread BSE infection--in the South Korea specifications listed by USDA, is far more extensive than US domestic requirements.

 

South Korea requires that "the skull, brain, eyes, distal ileum, tonsils, spinal cord, vertebral column, and their derived protein products" must be removed.

 

The US does not consider such things as spinal cords and brains to be specified risk material when they are taken from young cattle under 30 months old.

 

South Korea, according to USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service, is also demanding that extensive records be kept on the cattle slaughtered for beef trade. "Slaughter companies must maintain records that are sufficient to initiate a trace back to the previous location for all animals included in the Programme," according to the "export verification" notice for South Korea on the AMS website. "Records must be maintained for at least two years."

 

South Korea generated some concern with US exporters when it delayed inspection of US beef packing plants this month, but that process is back on track, US government officials said.

 

The USDA sent representatives to Seoul earlier this week to address a last-minute "list" of issues brought up by South Korea's government, but that has been settled, a government official said.

 

A team of South Korean officials is now expected to arrive in the US next week to begin inspecting beef packing plants as a precursor to trade resumption.