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Korea Talks Fail

Mike

Well-known member
South Korea beef ban stands
By KELLY OLSEN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea - The United States failed to narrow differences with South Korea over Seoul’s boycott of American beef, a news report said Thursday.

Washington says the issue threatens a possible free trade deal.

Agriculture officials from the two countries met for two days of ‘‘technical consultations’’ requested by Washington over South Korea’s rejection of U.S. beef imports for containing banned bone fragments.

The talks, however, failed to reach any agreement, Yonhap news agency reported, citing a South Korean Agriculture and Forestry Ministry official it did not identify.

Ministry official Yoon Young-goo said only that the talks had concluded late Thursday and South Korea would hold a briefing Friday.

U.S. officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

South Korea banned all imports of U.S. beef in December 2003 after the first reported U.S. case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Before the ban, South Korea was the third-largest overseas market for American beef.

After tough negotiations, Seoul agreed last year to allow a partial resumption of imports, but specified that only boneless meat from cattle less than 30 months old would be permitted because it is considered safer from mad cow disease.

But tiny bone fragments were found in all three subsequent shipments from the U.S., which were rejected.

The U.S. has defended the safety of American beef and accused South Korea of using the issue of bone fragments to impose an unofficial import ban. South Korea says it is an issue of food safety.

Further angering Washington, South Korea also said the third shipment contained levels of the toxic chemical dioxin exceeding approved levels.

The beef import issue, though not technically part of ongoing free trade talks, has still cast a shadow over them.

Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler, Washington’s negotiator in those talks, said last month that a deal would not be reached unless South Korea fully reopens its market to American beef.

The two-day talks were dogged by protests led by angry cattle farmers and other anti-free trade demonstrators near the venue south of Seoul.

About 80 farmers and protesters, some throwing eggs at a van carrying U.S. Department of Agriculture officials, rallied outside the meeting venue in Anyang, 14 miles south of Seoul.

Kim Jin-il, one of the organizers, said 27 of the demonstrators were taken to a police station for questioning. Police refused to comment, citing an investigation.

Protesters, carrying a sign printed with ‘‘Mad USA Cow Out of Korea,’’ said they opposed any U.S. beef imports, calling them unsafe.

South Korean official Yoon said Thursday’s session meeting began about 90 minutes behind schedule because of the protest.

On Wednesday, protesters burned an effigy of a U.S. cow painted with anti-free trade slogans.

Associated Press Writer Kwang-tae Kim contributed to this report.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Jason said:
Will testing the beef get bone chips out?

It wasn't even a bone chip, it was a tiny fragment of cartilage. What about the Dioxin? Figure it out Jason..... they link US beef with BSE in the papers, protesters with "mad cow" on their signs, this isn't about bone chips. It's about the US trying to bully them into something they don't want - and they're not going to take it. They know there's more than one way to skin a cat.
 

Jason

Well-known member
It isn't about BSE or dioxin either..it is politics... doesn't feel so good when it is another country using politics to ban you beef does it Sandhusker?
 

Mike

Well-known member
Jason said:
It isn't about BSE or dioxin either..it is politics... doesn't feel so good when it is another country using politics to ban you beef does it Sandhusker?

Jason, I guess this is the first time you and I have ever agreed, but you're right.........it is politics.

But think about this...........if the USDA had been transparent in their management of BSE here there would be no other excuse for the Koreans to boycott our beef.

Bottom line......they don't trust the USDA/USA beef because of the screw-ups that have been made here.

We don't have to go over those again.....they are/were very evident.

When the USDA denied Creekstone et al the right to test the Japs and Koreans were sitting back and thinking..........hmmmmmmm wonder what THEY are REALLY hiding??????????????

It sent a pretty strong message. I wany my $175+ per head back!
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Jason said:
It isn't about BSE or dioxin either..it is politics... doesn't feel so good when it is another country using politics to ban you beef does it Sandhusker?

They're writing the check, they make the call. What would you do if you went into your local store and asked for a NY Strip and they insisted all you could have was a rib steak? Would you take it?
 

Mike

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
Jason said:
It isn't about BSE or dioxin either..it is politics... doesn't feel so good when it is another country using politics to ban you beef does it Sandhusker?

They're writing the check, they make the call. What would you do if you went into your local store and asked for a NY Strip and they insisted all you could have was a rib steak? Would you take it?

We could insult them!

War of Words Heats Up with S. Korea - USDA Deputy Under Secretary Chuck Lambert's comments that "the U.S. beef industry is suspicious where the (bone) fragments came from," concerning three shipments of beef rejected by South Korea provoked an immediate response from South Korea. "It's nonsense," said Lee Yang-ho, spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, according to the Korea Times.
Lee went on to say that Lambert, as well as anonymous beef industry sources, are making unsubstantiated charges, which could be "understood as an act of infringement on Korea's sovereignty." Lee called Lambert's comments a "conspiracy theory" and denied that the ministry was under pressure from other government agencies to find reasons to reject U.S. beef.
According to an Australian Broadcasting Corp. report, Lambert said, "We've asked to have the bone chips returned; some people have suggested DNA sampling or other means of trying to determine the origin of these bone chips."
The issue roiled free trade agreement talks in Big Sky, Mont., last week. While both sides agreed the beef issue is technically separate from the FTA, negotiators for the United States as well as Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) attacked the Korean beef rejections, echoing U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns' charge that the South Korean market is not truly open to U.S. beef.
 

Econ101

Well-known member
The problem is that the US courts have given "deference" to the USDA and foreign governments just don't trust them without a verifiable test.

I would say they might be a lot smarter than the sheep following the multinationals.

Maybe they don't want to be sheep and are looking for the wolf under the sheep skin.
 

Tam

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
Jason said:
It isn't about BSE or dioxin either..it is politics... doesn't feel so good when it is another country using politics to ban you beef does it Sandhusker?

They're writing the check, they make the call. What would you do if you went into your local store and asked for a NY Strip and they insisted all you could have was a rib steak? Would you take it?

In these other countries it is the government and agencies within that government that are in charge of what gets into their country and what their consumers eat as it should be as like you say they are writing the Checks. So why is it, in the US it is a protectionist bunch of radical cattle producers out to protect not consumer health but their own pocketbook that get to call the shots? Have they become the governing body in charge of writing the checks on US consumer health safety now?
What makes R-CALF and their "need to bring in the Secret Service to get a man out alive" membership think they have the right to stop international trade?
 

Mike

Well-known member
Jason said:
It isn't about BSE or dioxin either..it is politics... doesn't feel so good when it is another country using politics to ban you beef does it Sandhusker?

Here's some politics for you Jason:

June 27, 2005:

USDA explains BSE test discrepancies

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns admits the USDA's IHC test "might not be the best option." Johanns announces reform goals for testing protocol, and reveals that Weybridge IHC was positive. Johanns reveals that USDA's Ames, Iowa, lab ran an "experimental" rapid IHC test in November 2004, which was positive for BSE then, but kept under wraps until June 24, 2005
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Tam said:
Sandhusker said:
Jason said:
It isn't about BSE or dioxin either..it is politics... doesn't feel so good when it is another country using politics to ban you beef does it Sandhusker?

They're writing the check, they make the call. What would you do if you went into your local store and asked for a NY Strip and they insisted all you could have was a rib steak? Would you take it?

In these other countries it is the government and agencies within that government that are in charge of what gets into their country and what their consumers eat as it should be as like you say they are writing the Checks. So why is it, in the US it is a protectionist bunch of radical cattle producers out to protect not consumer health but their own pocketbook that get to call the shots? Have they become the governing body in charge of writing the checks on US consumer health safety now?
What makes R-CALF and their "need to bring in the Secret Service to get a man out alive" membership think they have the right to stop international trade?

I don't know of any protectionist group of radical ranchers.

R-CALF is pointing out that the USDA told us that science decreed a zero-tolerance ban on importing from BSE positive countries in order to protect us. We would like to know why that policy was followed without fail for the first 22 countries, but all of a sudden all the rules had to be changed for #23. We don't like being sacrificed for Tyson and Cargill's checkbook.
 

Jason

Well-known member
The rules of the game changed as soon as BSE was confirmed in the US.

If beef from a BSE positive country is unsafe, then US beef is unsafe.

Canada showed the world that a pre BSE feed ban had been effective, we didn't have hundreds of cases even though we test thousands of the highest risk cattle.

The USDA is made up of bureaucrats, paper pushers etc. Some of the mistakes and decisions have been human error.

Add to it the litigious nature of America, and hands get tied, or people decide to hide things. Butt covering tends to obscure any chance of an open procedure like Canada has had.

The USDA per se is not crooked. It is run by people who don't want to get fired for making a decision. Some bad decisions are made because they are safe for the person making them.

I have said BSE is politics from day 1.
 
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