Today 12/6/2006 1:33:00 PM
USDA Secretary: S. Korea Effectively Closed To US Beef
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Wednesday he believes South Korea is effectively closed to U.S. beef shipments even though the country says officially that its border is open. South Korea announced in September the easing of its ban on U.S. beef, but Johanns told reporters Wednesday that the country’s market is just as unobtainable as it was before September.
South Korea has no intention of allowing any U.S. beef to pass import inspection, Johanns said. He stressed that South Korea “found a way to reject“ U.S. beef.
In this latest and third rejection of a U.S. beef shipment since South Korea said its market was open, 10 tons were turned away because import inspectors said they found a bone fragment “the size of one half of a grain of rice.“
The USDA recently sent a delegation to Seoul to ask that the two countries establish a bone fragment tolerance level. No agreement was reached.
“This is a hyper-technical effort to try to find a reason not to accept U.S. beef,“ Johanns said Wednesday.
And U.S. exporters know now that South Korea’s market is effectively closed, Johanns said.
“I don’t think we have anything else heading in that direction and I’ll be very surprised if anything does head that direction until this is resolved,“ he told a gathering of reporters in his Washington, D.C., office.
South Korea was the second-largest foreign market for U.S. beef before the USDA announced finding the first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, in December 2003. South Korea, along with most major importers, immediately banned U.S. beef.
Johanns said he is still hopeful that the two countries can work out a solution that will allow beef trade to resume, but at the moment the differences in positions are substantial.
Johanns said that if further negotiation doesn’t work, the U.S. would consider asking for resolution from the World Trade Organization, although he stressed he would prefer if that wasn’t necessary.
Source: Bill Tomson, Dow Jones Newswires 202-646-0088 [email protected]
USDA Secretary: S. Korea Effectively Closed To US Beef
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Wednesday he believes South Korea is effectively closed to U.S. beef shipments even though the country says officially that its border is open. South Korea announced in September the easing of its ban on U.S. beef, but Johanns told reporters Wednesday that the country’s market is just as unobtainable as it was before September.
South Korea has no intention of allowing any U.S. beef to pass import inspection, Johanns said. He stressed that South Korea “found a way to reject“ U.S. beef.
In this latest and third rejection of a U.S. beef shipment since South Korea said its market was open, 10 tons were turned away because import inspectors said they found a bone fragment “the size of one half of a grain of rice.“
The USDA recently sent a delegation to Seoul to ask that the two countries establish a bone fragment tolerance level. No agreement was reached.
“This is a hyper-technical effort to try to find a reason not to accept U.S. beef,“ Johanns said Wednesday.
And U.S. exporters know now that South Korea’s market is effectively closed, Johanns said.
“I don’t think we have anything else heading in that direction and I’ll be very surprised if anything does head that direction until this is resolved,“ he told a gathering of reporters in his Washington, D.C., office.
South Korea was the second-largest foreign market for U.S. beef before the USDA announced finding the first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, in December 2003. South Korea, along with most major importers, immediately banned U.S. beef.
Johanns said he is still hopeful that the two countries can work out a solution that will allow beef trade to resume, but at the moment the differences in positions are substantial.
Johanns said that if further negotiation doesn’t work, the U.S. would consider asking for resolution from the World Trade Organization, although he stressed he would prefer if that wasn’t necessary.
Source: Bill Tomson, Dow Jones Newswires 202-646-0088 [email protected]