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Ranchers.net

South Korea Backs Out of Beef
05/14/2008


The South Korean government has announced they won’t be resuming U.S. beef export trade on May 15th as previously agreed to. National Cattlemen's Beef Association Chief Economist Gregg Doud says the news comes as a huge surprise.

“It’s really a shock because we were up and running and ready to go. There actually is a group of Korean auditors here. Those discussions went well and so this whole thing comes as quite a surprise."

Public protests in South Korea have escalated recently due to consumer concern about the safety of U.S. beef due to BSE. According to Doud - the delay in implementing the new beef agreement is purely political.

“The situation appears to be tied to the opposition party and dealing with the opposition party politics in Korea. Their lame duck session may be trying to run out the clock the opposition party here. This is not what they agreed to do so our government is having some pretty high level talks right now to figure out how to fix this."

Doud says they’re not sure just how long the delay will be. Some news reports have stated several weeks, but reports from the South Korean government suggest it will be more like days.

“Unofficially what they announced in Korea is a 7-10 day delay. The reason for that is that they had to have some more internal discussions. But I think part of it has to do with the lame duck Korean Assembly."

Doud says the South Korean action may also impact negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement, especially if it appears they aren’t willing to operate in good-faith.
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