A top South Korean trade official said Sunday that this week's free trade agreement (FTA) talks with the United States won't be affected by Seoul's rejection of U.S. beef shipments after bone fragments were found in them.
"It's true that the U.S. side is concerned about South Korea's rejection of its beef shipments," Ambassador Kim Jong-hoon told reporters. "But I don't think the beef matter will make this round of negotiations more difficult because the beef quarantine issue isn't a subject on the negotiating table." "In fact, the focus of U.S. negotiators is moving to beef... However, our government's rejections of U.S. beef has a scientific logic," said Kim, South Korea's chief negotiator for free trade talks with the U.S.
Kim arrived in Big Sky, a ski resort in Montana, where the fifth round of free trade talks will take place from Monday through Friday.
Last week, South Korea's Agriculture Ministry rejected a second shipment of American chilled meat after three bone pieces were found in violation of an agreement that allowed imports of U.S. beef to resume.
South Korea, once the world's third-largest buyer of U.S. beef, has agreed to import only boneless meat from the U.S., ending a three-year ban after an outbreak of mad cow disease in that country.
U.S. agriculture officials have strongly criticized the South Korean rejection, which has raised concern ahead of this round of talks.
After the first U.S. beef shipment was rejected, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns accused the South Korean government of "inventing a reason to reject the meat." "The market isn't even close to opening," Johanns was quoted as saying by Reuters.
In October, South Korea found a bone fragment in the first shipment from U.S. slaughterhouse Creekstone Farms Premium Beef in Arkansas City, Kansas. The first nine-ton shipment of U.S. meat will also be destroyed or returned.
South Korean consumers are particularly concerned about mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Scientists say the animal disease is spread when farmers feed cattle with recycled meat and bones from infected animals. It is thought to cause the fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Beef is one of the major farm products that the U.S. hopes to cover under the FTA it plans to sign with South Korea by mid-2007 at the latest.
"Beef is a key issue for prominent supporters of the FTA (in the U.S.) such as Senator Max Baucus (from Montana)," said Troy Stangarone, director of congressional affairs and trade analysis at the Washington-based Korea Economic Institute.
"If beef imports were to be cut back, rather than expanded, it could impact the support for the FTA in Congress," Stangarone said in an e-mail interview with Yonhap News last week.
Aside from the beef issue, South Korea and the U.S. are facing a tough showdown in the Montana round, with such sensitive items as automobiles and medicine on the negotiating table.
Both sides want to wrap up the talks by the end of March next year before U.S. President George W. Bush loses his fast-track trade promotion authority, which requires a simple yes-or-no vote by Congress with no amendments.
Kim said free trade talks with the U.S. "haven't progressed so far faster than he previously anticipated," but he is still hopeful that the negotiations can be wrapped up successfully.
He declined to elaborate, however.
During the Montana round, Kim said he will focus on narrowing gaps in anti-dumping rules and textiles.
South Korea is Washington's seventh-largest trading partner, with two-way trade totaling more than US$72 billion in 2005, according to the South Korean government's figures.
Meanwhile, about 20 South Korean activists are expected to fly to the talks venue to protest against the fifth round this week, according to Han Dong-man, a spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
South Korea farmers and factory workers strongly oppose the proposed FTA, saying that if a deal is signed, it will destroy their livelihoods.
Big Sky Resort, Montana, Dec. 3 (Yonhap News)
Beef row won't affect free trade talks with U.S.: Seoul official |
