South Korea will lift its import ban on U.S. beef, paving the way for American beef to reach the local market as early as next month, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said Friday.
The move, which will come into force on Monday when the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service approves 36 meat processing facilities in the United States, ends the import ban that has been in place since December 2003.
Beef from cattle under 30 months old can be imported, but bone parts and intestines will be barred.
South Korea banned U.S. beef imports when a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, was confirmed in the United States.
"Taking into account packaging and shipment, it will take at least 25 days before the first shipment arrives in South Korea," Deputy Agriculture Minister Kim Dal-joong said at a press briefing.
He said delays in butchering and packaging will further hold up shipments, so it is not likely for American beef to reach local supermarkets before Chuseok, Korea's fall harvest holiday, in early October. He said the arrival date may be speeded up if they imported the beef by plane.
Kim said the U.S. shipped 199,443 tons of beef to South Korea, or 67.9 percent of all imports in 2003, but future imports are expected to be significantly less.
"Before the ban, 65 percent of imports were beef ribs, while another 10 percent to 15 percent were intestines, brain matter and tail parts that are banned this time," Kim said.
If any bones or specified risk materials (SRMs) are found in imports, he said, Seoul will take appropriate actions.
If bones are found, the facility that shipped the product will be banned from shipping beef to South Korea. If an SRM is found, all imports will be halted. SRMs refer to brains, head bones, spinal cord marrow, backbones and intestine parts with the highest risk of transmitting mad cow disease to humans.
The decision follows a fact-finding mission in May by South Korean experts who inspected cited food safety problems in seven of the meat processing facilities. Another team was sent to the U.S. in late August to examine the seven facilities.
Based on the second team's report, the Agriculture Ministry said earlier in the week that all the facilities changed the way they handled meat and met standards set by Seoul.
Of the seven, six facilities had butchered Canadian cows alongside U.S. animals, while one had a single butchering line for cattle of all ages. Cattle over 30 months old run a higher risk of contracting the disease.
Canada has reported several cases of mad cow disease, making it impossible for South Korea to import meat from that country.
An expert panel of government officials, veterinarians and interest group representatives also met Thursday and forwarded their recommendations.
On the same day, the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) welcomed South Korea's decision to lift its import ban on U.S. beef and vowed to win back South Korean consumers' trust in American beef.
The federation "believes that the U.S. beef import resumption will give an opportunity to Korean consumers to choose safe and high-quality beef," USMEF chief Philip Seng said in a statement.
The U.S. industry will continue to do its best for the Korean consumers to trust and enjoy U.S. beef, he added.
Seoul had agreed on Jan. 11 to resume U.S. beef imports, but temporarily suspended import proceedings after another mad cow case was reported in March.
Ministry sources said that with the resumption of U.S. beef imports, the price of local premium cattle, called "hanwoo," may move down by close to 40 percent in some estimates, but the rise in prices for Australian and New Zealand beef might be curbed.
They said because the quality of U.S. beef is better than other imports, demand may rise among restaurants, catering services and even consumers, although top-quality hanwoo will still be attractive.
The ministry also said that while lifting the import ban on American beef is not connected to ongoing free trade agreement (FTA) talks, it did not deny the action could have beneficial effects. Washington said it wanted access to the South Korean market as a precondition to starting FTA talks. South Korea was one of the top three export destinations for U.S. beef in the past.
Seoul, Sept. 8 (Yonhap News)
S. Korea to lift import ban on U.S. beef: Agriculture Ministry |
