June 7, 2006

South Korea, US still working on full resumption of beef trade

South Korea and the US are still working towards the goal of resuming beef trade, US Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Tuesday (Jun 6).

"There have been some issues relating to plants that we're still working with them on--providing them with information on," Johanns said.

He stressed, though, that there are no "major hurdles" in the way of a deal that would allow the US to start exporting beef to South Korea again.

"I would say we're still ... in the give and take phase in terms of the providing of information (to South Korea), but I don't see anything that has lessened my optimism here," Johanns said.

South Korea banned US beef in December 2003 after the first case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, was discovered in the US. Before the ban, the US exported US$815 million worth of beef to South Korea in 2003, according to USDA data.

South Korea recently conducted a two-week audit of 37 US beef processing plants to make sure they met with standards for shipping beef to South Korea, which has pledged to initially only reopen its market to boneless cuts.

US Senator Chuck Grassley said in a statement released Tuesday that he hopes South Korea will not delay easing its ban on US beef. That, he said, might jeopardise a free trade agreement the two countries are working on.

"I urge Korea to base its beef import policies on science and to move forward with its plans to resume imports of US beef this week," Grassley said. "There's no reason Korean consumers should continue to be denied access to US beef. Also, further delays to re-open the Korean market to US beef could complicate negotiations of a US-Korea Free Trade Agreement. I can't see the Congress passing implementing legislation for a trade agreement with a country that's shutting out a perfectly safe US product."