December 26, 2006

 

Dioxine in US beef may not affect trade with South Korea

 

 

South Korea has ruled out the possibility of banning US beef imports even after discovering excessive traces of dioxine, a government official said.

 

Lee Sang-kil, head of the country's Agriculture Ministry's livestock bureau, said the government would only penalise the particular meat-processing plant responsible for shipping the beef.

 

With the governments of both US and South Korea already at loggerheads over matters relating to beef, South Korea does not want to further aggravate the matter by imposing a ban on all beef imports.

 

According to Lee Sang-kil, Seoul wants Washington to give an explanation as to why the meat was contaminated with dioxine in the first place.

 

The higher dioxine levels could have been caused by a problem with the feed, or the animal might have ingested some paint from its enclosure fencing, he said.

 

The National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service said it found higher than permitted dioxine levels in a meat package belonging to a 10.2-tonne shipment that arrived in South Korea on Dec 1. The dioxine level tested at 6.26 picograms was larger than the 5-pg limit set by Seoul. One picogram is equivalent to one trillionth of a gram.

 

The US has also asked Seoul for more details of the test conducted by the quarantine service.

 

Since the shipment had several bone fragments, the beef was in the process of being sent back and therefore there was no risk of it reaching the market. However, deputy finance minister Kim Sung-jin felt sending back entire shipments when only a small fragment of bone was found could be hard to explain, and this could collide with international practices.

 

South Korea agreed to resume beef imports from the US after banning it for three years on the condition that the latter would send only boneless beef and from cattle not more than 30 months of age.

 

Kim said that local cattle ranchers' rights must be balanced with consumer interests, given that the price of local beef sold in South Korea was currently 5-10 times higher than comparable prices in other markets.

 

Just as it was important to help ranchers, the rights of consumers must also be protected, the deputy minister said.