South Korea's chief negotiator in free trade agreement (FTA) talks with the United States on Friday said the two sides may be able to resolve a trade dispute over his country's rejection of U.S. beef shipments, which is one of only a few lingering obstacles in the nine-month-old negotiations.
Last year, South Korea resumed imports of American beef, lifting a three-year ban prompted by a mad cow disease scare, but has since turned back three shipments totaling 22.3 tons of meat after tiny bone chips were found.
South Korean quarantine officials defended their actions as health-related, saying the U.S. must export only boneless meat as the trade agreement states. However, Washington accused Seoul of applying safety regulations too strictly to block U.S. beef imports.
While the beef row is not technically part of the ongoing FTA negotiations between the two countries, U.S. negotiators have said a deal won't be approved by Congress unless Seoul fully reopens its market to American beef.
At the center of the argument is whether the tiny bone fragments can actually be defined as bones.
"The agreement says only boneless meat can be imported, but it's a matter of interpretation whether the boneless meat can include bone chips," Kim Jong-hoon said in an interview with MBC radio.
"If we review international standards or examples of other nations, we could sufficiently resolve the beef issue," Kim said.
The top negotiator also called on his country's quarantine officials to employ "reasonable and scientific" criteria in their inspections.
"Quarantine officials should not leave room to cause a row with other nations," Kim said.
South Korea and the U.S. will hold their eighth round of FTA talks March 8-12 in Seoul. South Korean trade officials had indicated during the seventh round that one more round of talks would be needed to reach a deal.
Both sides are pushing to wrap up the FTA talks by the end of March. Under U.S. President George W. Bush's fast-track trade promotion authority, which expires on July 1, U.S. officials have only until April 2 to ready a deal that can be approved after a 90-day congressional review with a simple yea-or-nay vote without amendments.
In another interview with KBS radio on the same day, Kim showed optimism that the two countries can sign an agreement before the fast-approaching deadline.
"If we continue to show flexibility, I think we can seal a deal before the deadline," Kim said.
Seoul, Feb. 23 (Yonhap News)
S. Korean trade negotiator hints at resolution of beef spat with U.S. |
