South Korea And US Reach Deal On American Beef

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said it will resume imports of U.S. beef after American and South Korean suppliers agreed to block meat from older cattle, aiming Saturday to soothe health concerns that sparked weeks of demonstrations against new President Lee Myung-bak.

Still, protest leaders argued the plan doesn't go far enough and staged the latest of their daily candlelight rallies. The rally caused the main intersection in downtown Seoul to be blocked as thousands of riot police prevented demonstrators from marching to the presidential Blue House.

Procedures to put the new import agreement into effect were to start Monday, Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon said, but it was not clear when American beef would reach South Korean markets.

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

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

The April agreement had few restrictions on what meat would be allowed, sparking protests against Lee for caving in to American demands 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 has offered to resign.

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

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

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

Instead, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said the new arrangement _ agreed to after talks last week with her South Korean counterpart _ was a "commercial understanding" between U.S. exporters and South Korean importers that only meat from cattle younger than 30 months would be shipped, believed to be less at risk for mad cow disease.

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

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

"The age verification system will be in place until concerns over safety of U.S. beef subside," South Korean Trade Minister Kim told reporters in Seoul. He said South Korea will have the right to inspect U.S. slaughterhouses, and will not import parts of cattle such as brains, eyes, skulls and spinal cords that can carry mad cow disease.

The new agreement drew criticism from both sides in the trade dispute.

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

"The implications of this agreement set an unfortunate precedent for U.S. beef trade with Korea and other countries," Baucus said in a statement.

The coalition of South Korean civic groups that has supported the protests said the voluntary agreement did not go far enough and vowed to continue demonstrating.

"We made it clear that a complete renegotiation is the only alternative that can fundamentally solve the people's concerns about mad cow disease," the coalition said in a statement.

Eating meat products contaminated with mad cow disease is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and deadly nerve disease.

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Associated Press Writer Kwang-tae Kim contributed to this report.

Comments

[cjohnathan]

If these folks don't want our meat, why is it being forced on them? Will they be able to choose between
US beef and beef from another source ? Is our export beef industry so vital to our economy that we have to extort and coerce foreign consumers? Don't we already look like international a**holes?
Sheesh!......Anyway, I think my steak is done.

[Gorestro]

South Korea was the third largest importer of U.S. beefs until 2003. U.S. beefs will compete with Australian beefs and South Korean beefs.

In my honest opinion, if the United States does the three things, I think that the U.S. beefs can be exported to South Korea without controversies because South Koreans are not against all U.S. beefs.

1. Improve the U.S. beef safety standard by inspecting all cows for serious diseases. Do this for Americans as well as South Koreans because we are concerned about the beef safety also.

2. U.S. government publicly condemn South Korea's pro-U.S. right wing groups for using violence and name callings against the South Korean protesters. (Do what Obama did against his problem pastors.) They provoked many peaceful protesters by using violence and calling the protesters "anti-U.S.," "pro-North Korea," "lefties," and even "Satan." Read http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/16/17566/6494/58/536928.

3. Sell U.S. beefs that came from cows at 20 years old or younger at the time of slaughter to have the beef standard consistent with those sold to Japan. Do not sell beefs or beef products that came from cows 20+ years old at the time of slaughter.

But I do not think that the U.S. government is willing to do these. Moreover, South Korea's right wing president relies too much on the advices of controversial right wing pastors.

[Gorestro]

This is far from over in South Korea and the United States. It's an agreement that let the meat companies to do whatever they want to do in their voluntary inspection of their beef products.

During the South Korean protests, many concerned Americans supported their peaceful protests because of the food safety concerns in the United States. People demanded that the U.S. government do more to improve the food safety.

Instead, we have the government that let the fox watch the henhouse.

In the Congress, spineless Democrats say nothing about enhancing the safety inspection for Americans but complain about this amendment only.

And these are the same Democrats that voted for more unrestricted spying on Americans and the telecom immunity.

Check this link and read what what Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act is. This is a shocker.

http://www.stopaeta.org/

And check here for untold stories of South Korean protests. (It's a week old but still worth reading.)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/16/17566/6494/58/536928

South Korea's presidents were center-liberal since 1998 and its National Assembly was dominated by the ruling center-liberal party since 2004. In the 2007 presidential election and the 2008 National Assembly election, South Korea's center-left lost huge because since 2004 they did what the DLC Democrats and many current Democrats in the U.S. Congress did: campaigning on the left but governing and legislating on the right and compromising too much with the right wing.

[letsgetsmart]

Well at least some people on the planet will get to eat clean beef. How about us? Are you going to revive the food and drug administration for us or are you going to focus the few resources we have on the exports to Korea so the republican beef producers can share the spoils?

[OhioJan]

I couldn't agree with ANY one more!!! I'm, personally, exacerbated by yesterday's vote, & I expect the SENATE to vote the same way next week.

I'm curious about the TRUE deal bu$hyco made with the SVN: We'll continue shipping them meat from afflicted cows & they have to accept it & shut up? Kind of sounds like their "deals" for their OWN citizens! What a bunch of greedy, corrupt s@t@n-worsh!ppers!!!