The Korea Times
06-07-2006
SEOUL (Yonhap) _ The South Korean government said Wednesday it will delay resumption of American beef imports after finding problems with operating procedures at U.S. meat processing facilities.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said inspections of 37 U.S. meat processing facilities last month revealed shortcomings in some that need addressing before the import ban can be lifted.
This is expected to push back U.S. beef imports at least a month. Originally, American beef was to hit store shelves later this month.
South Korea initially imposed the import ban late 2003 after a case of mad cow case was discovered in the U.S.
The problems cited by Seoul are facilities butchering foreign beef along with those U.S.-raised beef. Also, while most facilities had two or more butchering lines and tools to process carcasses, a few had only one to process animals aged 30 months or younger.
Butchering of foreign animals is an issue since South Korea currently only allows beef from Australia, New Zealand and Mexico into the country. Seoul said using a single butchering line might make it hard to determine if the meat is from cattle older or younger than 30 months old. South Korea agreed in January to only import beef from animals under 30 months old, which have little risk of being affected by mad cow disease, and said it will not allow bone-in beef such as ribs into the country.
``In the United States, such procedures are not seen as problems, but we feel these issues need to be addressed before any imports take place,’’ said Park Hyun-chool, head of the ministry's livestock bureau. He said U.S. officials understand the concerns.
He added that while not all meat processing facilities had the same problems, Seoul wanted all the issues resolved before giving authorization.
``The United States needs to provide assurances on the concerns raised,’’ the official said. He added that Seoul's position on the issue had been forwarded to Washington before the formal announcement was made.
An eight-person fact-finding team returned from the two-week inspections on May 21, and local experts have since reviewed the results to determine which processing facilities met standards and can be allowed to ship products to South Korea.
Kang Mun-il, chief of the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service, said the two countries plan to exchange views and information that can iron out differences preventing the resumption of beef imports. He said no formal talks have been agreed upon at present.
The director general said the differences were not great, and predicted appropriate measures could be worked out within a month if all sides agree on the actions needed.
Meanwhile, the Agriculture Ministry said if any bones are found in future imported U.S. beef, the meat processing facility that shipped the product could be banned from further exports.
However, it said it would have to consider whether this ban would include others as well.
times.hankooki.com