December 14, 2006

 

US senators will block South Korea trade pact without beef trade

 

 

Seven US senators pledged Wednesday (Dec 13) that they will work to block a free trade agreement being negotiated between the US and South Korea if South Korea refuses to pull back restriction on US beef exports.

 

Independent of the free trade agreement negotiations, South Korea agreed to ease its ban on US beef in September, but the country has blocked three separate US shipments because inspectors found bone fragments. 

 

Keith Williams, spokesman for the Senate Agriculture Committee, said seven Democratic and Republican senators have vowed that if South Korea does not resume buying US beef and accept "a bone tolerance for future shipments," they "would work to oppose an overall free trade agreement with South Korea".

 

The USDA recently sent a delegation to Seoul to ask that the two countries establish a bone-fragment tolerance level. No agreement was reached.

 

The seven senators, in a Dec 13 letter to US Trade Representative Susan Schwab and US Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, urged them "to suspend all negotiations with South Korea until exports of US beef resume and both countries agree on reasonable and fair bone tolerance levels for future shipments. Anything less will result in our opposition to a free trade agreement with South Korea."

 

Senators. Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia, Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, Pat Leahy, D-Vermont, Craig Thomas, R-Wyoming, Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota, and Jim Talent, R-Missouri, signed on to the letter.

 

South Korea was the second-largest foreign market for US beef before the USDA announced finding the first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, in December 2003. South Korea, along with most major importers, immediately banned US beef.

 

USDA's Johanns reacted angrily earlier this month to news that a third shipment of US beef was rejected by South Korea.

 

He predicted then that US lawmakers would punish South Korea by blocking approval of an unrelated free trade agreement between the two countries.