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Global group could thwart efforts to ban U.S. beef

February 13, 2007


	During a free trade protest in Seoul’s Myeong-dong, one of the six goats released by farmers enjoyed a short period of freedom. A pig was also let free on the streets. [YONHAP]

Officials at the Agriculture Ministry said yesterday that a May meeting of the World Organization for Animal Health could be crucial for Korea’s attempts to keep U.S. beef on the bone out of Korea.

The officials said that if the organization classifies the United States as a country where the risk of mad cow disease is under control, Korea would lose its justification for continuing to ban beef on the bone.
That condition was imposed last year when Korea agreed to end a three-year ban on the import of U.S. beef. But the first three shipments of several tons each were all rejected after small bone fragments, three in one shipment, for example, were discovered. That vigorous enforcement triggered complaints from the United States, which has now linked the issue to the conclusion of a free trade agreement with Seoul.
A powerful U.S. senator, Max Baucus of Montana, has threatened to block approval of any trade agreement unless U.S. beef is freely exportable here.
The officials said if the United States wins the new designation, which they said they considered likely, Korea would be able to ban only some organs, marrow and spines from trade, and only then if the cattle were over 30 months old.


	Policemen picking up radishes, part of the 1-ton supply dumped by farmers.

Lee Sang-kil, the head of the Agriculture Ministry’s livestock bureau, said the United States had asked the organization for the redesignation in October to the middle of the three categories of mad cow disease risk.
Oh Soon-min, a veterinarian at the ministry, said that Korea could still ban the import of U.S. beef if it could prove that certain beef products are still dangerous. That, he said, would be a large hurdle to overcome.

The animal health group has 168 members, including Korea and the United States.
“This is why the U.S. negotiators at the beef quarantine meeting last week took a hard line,” said Park Hyun-soo, a researcher at Samsung Economics Research Institute. “The Korean government should use this as leverage at the free trade negotiations, and not just try to avoid any U.S. beef imports.”
At the free trade talks themselves yesterday, agricultural trade negotiations reportedly dominated the discussions, but little progress was reported. The negotiators are facing a March deadline for concluding a trade pact.
Korean farm interests demonstrated near the site of the negotiations outside Washington, D.C., but no violence was reported. The protests were led by the Korean Alliance against KorUs FTA.

By Park Hye-min(JoongAng Ilbo)/Hwang Young-jin(Staff Writer) yhwang@joongang.co.kr

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