May 28, 2007
South Korea to start talks with US on full beef imports
The South Korean government said Monday it would begin talks with the United States over the possibility of importing US beef with bones.
The government did not give a time frame on when the negotiations would be completed.
This announcement comes following last week's announcement by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) that the United States is a "controlled risk" country for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, in response to which the US requested to renegotiate.
"We respect the decision made by World Organisation for Animal Health. We will sincerely handle the import term negotiation with the US, and hope to finalise the procedure in a reasonable time band," the government said in a joint media conference by the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
South Korea banned US beef after BSE was discovered in the US in December 2003.
In late April, South Korea began importing boneless US beef from cattle younger than 30 months old.
BSE, better known as mad cow disease, is believed to spread when farmers feed recycled meat and bones from infected animals to cattle.
Opening up the Korean market to unconditional imports of US beef is expected to affect Australian beef exporters.
In 2006, Australia supplied almost 80 percent of South Korea's US$800 million a year beef imports.
According to the US Meat Export Federation, the US exported US$813.2 million of beef in 2003 before the ban went into effect. At the time, South Korea was the third-largest market for US beef, after Japan and Mexico.
US Congress members representing beef-producing states had threatened to scuttle a free-trade agreement reached in early April between the US and South Korea unless the US regained full access to the South Korean meat market.
South Korean beef farmers and activist groups have strongly opposed allowing US beef back into the country, arguing that US beef was unsafe due to the mad cow disease concerns.
