US Won't Renegotiate Beef Deal With S Korea - USDA Dep Secretary
June 10, 2008: 03:57 PM EST
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)-The U.S. has no intention of altering a recent deal it struck with South Korea to fully resume beef trade between the two countries, U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner said Tuesday.
"We're not renegotiating these protocols," Conner told Dow Jones Newswires.
But that is exactly what South Korea President Lee Myung-bak asked the U.S. to do.
The deal, struck in April with the intention that it be implemented in June, would allow the U.S. to resume exporting beef to South Korea - once the second largest importing market for U.S. producers - but news of the agreement sparked strong opposition and brought thousands of protesters into the streets. One protest rally in Seoul on Sunday drew 40,000 peaceful demonstrators, by police estimates.
Lee suggested in a speech last week that the deal be only partially implemented and the U.S. only be allowed to ship beef from cattle under 30 months old. Cattle older than 30 months are considered to be more susceptible to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease. Mad-cow disease is an always-fatal neurological disease in cattle. People who eat tainted beef can contract variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is a similar transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in humans.
Conner was adamant that the deal not be changed, but did say the USDA would not stand in the way of U.S. producers proposing to label their beef to reflect the age of the cattle that the beef came from.
"We have said it's not our business to interfere with ... private importers in Korea developing their own standards," Conner said. "And if U.S. suppliers want to supply that product by those specifications, that's a private commercial transaction that we don't intend to interfere with and have no opposition to."
Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN), JBS Swift & Co., Cargill Meat Solutions Corp., National Beef Packing Co. and Smithfield Beef Group Inc., (SFD) all said in a joint statement that they are willing to label the beef to "indicate whether the product is from cattle under 30 months, or from cattle 30 months of age and over" for a limited time.
-By Bill Tomson, Dow Jones Newswires; (202) 646-0088;
[email protected]
But notice how they allow Tyson to jump through hoops to market their beef, but won't allow Creekstone............ :roll: :roll: