January 25, 2006

South Korea cancels meeting on Canadian beef imports

A meeting to resume South Korea's imports of Canadian beef was called off due to another case of mad cow disease in Canada, government officials said.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said the Korea-Canada beef talks, which were originally scheduled for February, have been postponed indefinitely.

Talks will resume only after detailed tests have been completed, a government official said.

Protein-based feeds are suspected to be the main cause of mad cow disease. Experts said that since the animal was born after 1998, when the ban on such feeds should have been in place, it meant there are still serious loopholes in Canada's livestock control system.

South Korea banned imports of Canadian beef in May 2003 after a case of mad cow disease was detected in Canada. The market share of Canadian beef in Korea was about 7 percent to 8 percent of imports.