October 30, 2006

 

USDA: South Korea beef trade issues need resolution

 

 

Unresolved issues between the US and South Korea are preventing the creation of a "commercially viable" environment for US beef trade to thrive, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

 

US beef exports are still not yet flowing to South Korea more than a month after the two countries announced new rules to allow a limited amount of trade to resume, USDA officials said this week.

 

The USDA, in a letter to South Korean officials, dated Sep 22, said "critical issues remain unresolved before we can consider the recent announcement of the opening of the Korean beef market to be a commercially-viable agreement".

 

There has been no response to the Sep 22 letter, a copy of which was obtained by Dow Jones Newswires, according to USDA officials who asked not to be named in this story.

 

South Korea was the second largest foreign market for US beef until Dec 2003, when the country--along with most other major markets--banned imports. It was on Dec 23 of that year that the USDA announced finding the first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in the US.

 

On Sep 8 of this year, South Korea agreed to ease its nearly three-year-old ban on US beef, but there were strict conditions that allowed only boneless cuts to be shipped and prohibited specified risk material--parts of a cow believed to transmit the BSE disease.

 

But South Korean interpretations of specified risk material went beyond what US officials said they agreed to.

 

The USDA, in the letter, told South Korea that the "foundation of our concerns rests upon the acceptable definition of specified risk material".

 

The USDA said it was worried South Korea considered silver skin, a membrane separating muscle groups, cartilage and some bone material to be specified risk material and therefore subject US exports to "suspension or any other detrimental action".

 

Silver skin and cartilage, the USDA said, are neither bone nor specified risk material, and should not be prohibited in US shipments.

 

The uncertainty of what South Korea considers to be risky bovine material, combined with concerns over what the country will do if it finds that material in US shipments, have kept trade from resuming, USDA officials said this week.

 

It's that situation that one USDA official said is prompting the department to send yet another "technical" delegation to Seoul to discuss the issues with officials there.

 

"It's all up in the air right now," the official said.