Seoul may gradually lift all of
its restrictions on U.S. beef imports, amid continuing safety
concerns among the public, triggered by a case of mad cow
disease in 2003, government sources said.
The move is
aimed at winning approval from the Democratic-led U.S.
Congress for the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement waiting to be
ratified by the legislators of both countries.
Full
reopening of Koreas beef market has been cited as the key to
persuading U.S legislators to pass the pact, which studies
show would bolster trade between the two major trading
partners.
President-elect Lee Myung-bak, who will be sworn
in next month, supports the deal, which it is believed would
reinvigorate the economy.
In the first stage, the
government in considering allowing previously unaccepted beef
on the bone into the country, while keeping intact its
restrictions on the age of cattle.
U.S. beef was banned in
December 2003 in the wake of an outbreak of mad cow disease,
or Bovine Spongiform Encephalitus, at a farm in Washington
State. Seoul partially lifted the ban in January 2006,
accepting only boneless beef from cattle younger than 30
months old, but suspended imports last year after bone
fragments were found in several shipments.
The Agriculture
Ministry will expand the imports of beef, including beef on
the bone from cattle of less than 30 months old, according to
the ministrys report to the power transition team led by
President-elect Lee Myung-bak.
It added that the
government could further permit the imports of cattle of all
ages, on condition that the United States tightens its rules
on the use of cattle feed containing animal parts, which is a
suspected cause of BSE.
The two sides began negotiating
over revising beef import rules late last year, but the talks
have been deadlocked after they failed to narrow their
differences.
Korea proposed the imports of beef on
the bone, except for certain cuts believed to have a high risk
of transferring BSE, while leaving the restrictions on the age
of cattle unchanged.
But the United States wants Seoul to
allow almost all types of beef into the country, citing that
the U.S. has been classified in May as a BSE controlled risk
country by the World Organization for Animal Health.
The
United States, which exported $850 million worth of beef to
Korea in 2003, was the third-largest beef exporting nation to
Korea after Australia and New Zealand.
By Jin
Hyun-joo
(hjjin@heraldm.com)
2008.01.21
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