S. Korea, US agree on beef deal

Tag : Beef Meat

South Korea said it will resumeimports of U.S. beef after American and South Korean suppliersagreed to block meat from older cattle, aiming Saturday to soothehealth concerns that sparked weeks of demonstrations against newPresident Lee Myung-bak.

Still, protest leaders argued the plan doesn't go far enough andstaged the latest of their daily candlelight rallies. The rallycaused the main intersection in downtown Seoul to be blocked asthousands of riot police prevented demonstrators from marching tothe presidential Blue House.

Procedures to put the new import agreement into effect were tostart Monday, Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon said, but it was notclear when American beef would reach South Korean markets.

Lee, a pro-U.S. conservative who took office in February, hadagreed to allow resumed American beef imports in April —seeking to improve relations with Washington and pave the way for alarger free-trade deal between the two countries to helpreinvigorate the South Korean economy.

The beef-loving South has allowed intermittent U.S. beef importssince banning it in 2003 after the first case of mad cow diseasewas discovered there.

The April agreement had few restrictions on what meat would beallowed, sparking protests against Lee for caving in to Americandemands and failing to consider public opinion about health risks.In the wake of demonstrations that grew as large as 80,000 people,Lee replaced all his top advisers and his entire Cabinet also hasoffered to resign.

The demonstrations have since dwindled, and police said about 9,600protesters gathered Saturday evening in Seoul.

Some of them turned violent, however, dragging a police bus withropes off a barricade and smashing its windows, TV footage showed.Riot police responded by spraying fire extinguishers at thedemonstrators. There were no reports of serious injuries.

The U.S. government had refused to renegotiate the April deal,worried it would set a precedent for other countries to back out oftrade agreements.

Instead, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said the newarrangement — agreed to after talks last week with her SouthKorean counterpart — was a "commercial understanding" betweenU.S. exporters and South Korean importers that only meat fromcattle younger than 30 months would be shipped, believed to be lessat risk for mad cow disease.

The plan is "a transitional measure, to improve Korean consumerconfidence in U.S. beef," she said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will set up a "voluntary" systemto verify the age of beef, Schwab said. If South Korea finds beefhas been shipped that violates the agreement, it can take actiononly against the specific product or company involved.

"The age verification system will be in place until concerns oversafety of U.S. beef subside," South Korean Trade Minister Kim toldreporters in Seoul. He said South Korea will have the right toinspect U.S. slaughterhouses, and will not import parts of cattlesuch as brains, eyes, skulls and spinal cords that can carry madcow disease.

The new agreement drew criticism from both sides in the tradedispute.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate FinanceCommittee, argued there was no scientific reason to limit importsof American beef. U.S. meat has been certified as safe to consumeby the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.