September 6, 2006

 

Re-entry of US beef to be based on science and international guidelines

 

 

If South Korea were to re-open its market to US beef, it would be based on internationally accepted standards and scientific facts, Agriculture Minister Park Hong-soo said Wednesday (Sep 6).

 

The official said the government would protect the health of its people and dispelled rumours that the government has already agreed to open its market to American beef.

 

Park said there are 50 key categories to be approved before the government would allow imports.

 

South Korea has banned American beef since December 2003. Seoul agreed earlier this year to resume US beef imports, but suspended it after a mad cow case was reported in March.

 

The government is scheduled to convene an expert panel of both government and private experts to examine results of a fact-finding visit by South Korean inspectors to US beef processing centres earlier in August. The panel would give their recommendations on whether it is safe to import US beef.

 

The inspectors were sent to the US to see if problems found earlier in some meat processing facilities have been rectified. It had emerged in June that several processing plants used the same equipment to handle Canadian cows and those from the United States, which prompted South Korea to enforce its ban on US beef. 

 

The minister also said that Seoul would abide by rules set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health.

 

Both organisations have said meat from cows aged 30 months or younger, with specified risk materials (SRMs) like brains, spinal cords are safe.

 

However, South Korea would also require that no bone parts included in future shipments, and reserved the right to impose the ban again should another mad cow case emerge in an animal born after the 1998 feed ban. 

 

As for the ongoing free trade talks with the United States, the official said South Korea would exclude 284 agricultural products, including rice, from any market opening deals.

 

This would mean one in five of the products in the trade talks. Meanwhile, the US wants all tariffs to be removed in a decade while Seoul planned to stick to a five-tiered programme that allowed for some products to be excluded altogether.

 

Seoul is also hoping for a safeguard measure that would protect local farmers from a sudden increase in imports, a measure opposed by the US.