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Ranchers.net

The government¡¯s decision to import U.S. beef from cows that are less than 30 months old offers a minimal level of protection for the public health. But before long, the restriction will be lifted as part of negotiations on beef import rules currently taking place between South Korea and the United States, and South Koreans will be at risk of eating beef that contains materials that can cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, which is more commonly known as mad cow disease. During negotiations on the beef issue, which resumed shortly after the National Assembly election, Seoul has made a one-sided concession.


This has all come about because President Lee, who is visiting Washington, values the free trade agreement with the United States, and the United States has repeatedly urged South Korea to lift restrictions on beef imports if it wants to conclude the FTA. It is wrong for the government to accept U.S. demands in order to complete the FTA, from which Seoul will suffer bigger losses than gains, while putting aside the public health and issues faced by cattle ranchers. It is also unclear whether the U.S. Congress will ratify the FTA with Korea.



Since the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health, or OIE, concluded last May that the United States was able control the risks associated with mad cow disease, Washington has urged Seoul to open its beef market completely. Seoul was initially planning to allow imports of bone-in beef, while keeping the restriction on imports of beef younger than 30 months, but will likely ease the age restriction on the condition that the United States strengthen measures to ban animal feed and will make an effort to improve the system for tracking beef to its point of origin.


The United States legislated a ban on animal feed in 2005, but the law has not been implemented effectively due to resistance from cattle farmers and costs related to enforcement of the law. As a result, it is difficult to expect that the law will be applied effectively. After all, Seoul is providing greater access to its market while abandoning its quarantine sovereignty at the request of the United States. South Korea should never have allowed imports of bone-in beef.


Even though the United States has been designated a risk-controlled country for mad cow disease, U.S. beef still cannot be considered safe. Canada also was classified as a controlled risk country for made cow, but a new case of the disease has been confirmed; in the United States recently, a woman in her 20s who was suspected of having been infected with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease died. So far, South Korea has imported boneless beef from cattle less than 30 months old, but specified risk materials have been found several times. If imports of beef containing bone fragments, such as vertebral columns, are allowed, it will be difficult for the nation to avoid SRMs.
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