September 11, 2006

 

US wants South Korea pledge regarding beef bone fragments

 

 

US government and industry officials are pleased South Korea has agreed to ease its ban on US beef, but they still want assurances the country would not allow unintended small amounts of bone fragments to disrupt future trade.

 

The US Department of Agriculture is after South Korea to sign a bone fragment tolerance level for beef trade, an issue still unresolved despite the country's announcement on Friday (Sep 8) that it will begin buying US beef after a nearly three-year ban.

 

Bone fragments, according to USDA spokespersons, are indeed what USDA Secretary Mike Johanns alluded to in a statement released late Thursday night. "We are mindful that significant technical issues exist that must be resolved," Johanns said in reaction to South Korea's announcement on beef. "We will continue to work with Korea to address these matters in the coming days."

 

South Korea has not agreed to resume imports of all US beef products. US shipments are restricted to boneless cuts from cattle under 30 months old.

 

One USDA official, speaking on terms of anonymity, said the lack of an agreement on bone fragments will not prevent US exporters from making shipments.

 

Relatively small bone fragments--sometimes not much more than cartilage--are generally considered unavoidable in large shipments of beef and a normal part of trade, but US industry representatives said they believe the issue could disrupt US exports to South Korea as it has done recently with shipments to Hong Kong.

 

Hong Kong, this year, has halted beef imports from some US beef plants due to the discovery of bone fragments since it eased its ban on US beef in December 2005.

 

The uncertainty over how South Korea will react to finding bone fragments could complicate trade, a US meat industry official said Friday.

 

"How will Korea react in the event that some inspector finds some very small pieces of what they consider bone?" the industry official said. "The uncertainty attendant to that is obviously the primary concern ... From a business planning standpoint it makes it pretty difficult ..."

 

Meanwhile, some groups representing the US beef and cattle industries are still not satisfied with only a partial trade resumption.

 

American Meat Institute Vice President John Reddington said that because boneless product represents only about half of what the US exported to Korea in 2003, there is still a long way to go toward the goal of full restoration of beef trade.

 

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), the largest US cattle rancher group, thanked USDA for its efforts to facilitate the resumption of trade with South Korea.

 

But Gregg Doud, NCBA's chief economist, called South Korea's announcement on beef imports "a small step toward fully normalising trade" and pledged that the group "will not rest until South Korean consumers have access to all the same beef cuts they enjoyed prior to Dec 2003."