Court sides with gov’t on U.S. beef import decision
8-to-1 ruling says administration took adequate steps
December 27, 2008
The Lee Myung-bak administration did not violate the Constitution when it took its last administrative step to open the Korean market wider to American beef, the nation’s highest court ruled yesterday.
In an 8-to-1 vote, the Constitutional Court turned down a petition signed by 96,000 people who had questioned the legitimacy of the government’s decision to resume the imports and the administrative procedures involved. The court said the government took adequate measures to protect the nation from the risk of mad cow disease.
Seoul and Washington struck a deal to open Korea’s market to a wider range of U.S. beef cuts in April. That sparked 106 days of public demonstrations stemming from concerns about the safety of American beef. The petition to the Constitutional Court was filed in June.
At the time, the petitioners claimed that the decision by the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to publish the new safety regulations governing the U.S. beef imports in the government gazette violated the people’s basic rights.
“Based on the international standards of the World Organization for Animal Health [OIE] and today’s scientific and technological knowledge, there is no reason to rule that the new safeguard measures had violated the state’s constitutional duty to protect the lives and physical safety of citizens, although the safeguards may not be perfect,” the majority said in a statement.
Led by the Lawyers for a Democratic Society, the petition was filed on June 5. The 96,000 people who signed the petition formed the largest group in Korea to ever join a single case.
The petitioners argued that the new regulations radically increase the risk of the human form of mad cow disease, thus violating the people’s right to happiness, life and health.
Despite fierce public protests, the government published a set of new quarantine regulations in the June 26 edition of its official gazette. Following the adoption of additional safeguards hammered out with Washington earlier in that month, the new safeguards effectively barred the import of beef from cattle slaughtered when they were over 30 months old.
“The regulations eased import quarantine standards from those stipulated in March 2006, but the alteration was based on various factors such as the changed risk linked to U.S. beef imports,” the court said. “Therefore, it is difficult to see that the government made the changes groundlessly.”
The court also said it dismissed the petition because no additional cases of mad cow disease have been reported recently in the United States and the risk control measures under the new regulations were adequate.
The court said the government had taken enough additional measures to stop infected meat from entering the country.
The court also noted the revision of the livestock disease prevention law to complement the new safeguard measures for U.S. beef import and additional quarantine and inspection orders.
The court further noted the newly introduced system to label the origin of food ingredients.
Justice Song Doo-hwan dissented from the majority.
“The hygiene standards for U.S. beef imports were eased for no particular reason, largely lifting preventive measures guarding against the risk of U.S. beef,” Song said. “The regulations violated the people’s basic rights.”
An alliance of progressive civic groups that led the street demonstrations criticized the court’s ruling.
“I have never thought that the court would say that the measures were constitutional,” said Ahn Jin-geol, an official of the People’s Conference Against Mad Cow Disease.
“The people’s basic rights were violated, but the Constitutional Court turned a blind eye to the situation. This means that the court isn’t functioning properly.”
Conservative groups welcomed the ruling.
“It was hard to understand why they filed the petition,” said Byun Cheol-hwan, spokesman of the New Right Union.
“Society should now come together to address the common good, such as devising ways to overcome the economic crisis.”
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2899115