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This Sounds Like A Whopper Of A Story To Me

Mike

Well-known member
Wheels coming off U.S.-South Korean beef deal
Wednesday, June 4, 2008, 4:13 PM

by Peter Shinn

Anyone who thought the U.S. had a deal with South Korea over beef may well be mistaken. It now appears political pressure in South Korea may unravel a pact initially announced in April.

The U.S.-South Korean beef deal, which was supposed to have taken effect Tuesday, is now in a state of flux, as daily street protests in Seoul against the agreement are threatening to de-rail it completely. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's approval rating is between 20% and 30% and his government is asking if the U.S. would agree to ship only beef from cattle 30 months of age and younger.

On April 1st, South Korean Ambassador Lee Tae-sik assured Brownfield during a joint press conference with Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman in Omaha that a new deal on beef would comply with World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) guidelines. So what’s happened since?

John Reddington is Vice President of International Trade for the American Meat Institute (AMI). He told Brownfield the seeds of the current debacle were sown through Internet rumors spread by a pair of South Korean teenagers.
"This started with a couple of high school bloggers who used misinformation that was picked up by other school kids, by the school teachers' union," Reddington said.

Among the inaccuracies that were swiftly disseminated were stories that South Korean's are genetically predisposed to contract variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and that U.S. consumers refuse to eat American beef. Those falsehoods, according to Reddington, were then seized upon by opponents of the pending U.S. – South Korean free trade agreement and a mass-movement developed.

So will the U.S. renegotiate the beef deal? Reddington said AMI is still waiting to hear from USDA. And in the meantime, as South Korea’s ban on U.S. beef moves through its fifth year, Reddington had this sentiment.

"It's frustrating to everybody," he sighed. "We're just beside ourselves with frustration."

The bigger issue may be the pending U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA). And if the wheels do come of the U.S.-South Korean beef deal, Nebraska Democratic Senator Ben Nelson told Brownfield Congressional approval of the FTA is out of the question.

"The answer is no," Nelson said. "In the absence of a functioning agreement regarding the full importation of U.S. beef under the OIE guidelines, there is no way the trade agreement is going to be approved. It just can't happen."

Nelson added that he hates to tell anyone "he told them so." But Nelson also pointed out he publicly warned back in April against getting too excited about any so-called deal on beef with South Korea until such a deal was actually in place and working for a while.
 

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