U.S. meat industry blasts South Korea for beef bar
Source: Reuters
By Missy Ryan WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - U.S. beef producers and packers excoriated South Korea on Friday for rejecting a second shipment of U.S. beef, accusing Seoul of unjustified stalling just a week before talks on a proposed free trade deal. "This reiterates ... that the Koreans were never really interested in opening the market," said John Reddington, vice president for trade at the American Meat Institute. Earlier on Friday, officials in Seoul said they had rejected a shipment of U.S. beef that contained bone fragments. They acted a week after the first shipment from a U.S. plant since 2003 was rejected for the same reason. Seoul's decision to bar imports from two out of three U.S. plants currently exporting to Korea mark a shaky restart for meat trade with the Asian nation. U.S. imports had been banned since the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in 2003. The news also comes just a week before U.S. and South Korean officials meet in Montana, a major beef-producing state, to continue talks for a planned free-trade deal that would boost trade with the world's eleventh-largest economy. Officials in Seoul say trade will continue from some U.S. plants, but add that they will bar all U.S. beef if materials like brains, spinal cords or nervous tissues are found. In Washington, the official reaction has been angry. On Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said South Korea "invented" a reason to refuse U.S. meat. Jay Truitt, head of the association's Washington office of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, said the shipping and inspection restrictions would cost $160 million to $170 million a year for a market that is now worth $400 million. "At some point, it's almost impossible to make it work," he said. South Korea accepts only boneless beef from cattle up to 30 months of age. In the past, it purchased ribs and other bone-in products. The Cattlemen called South Korea's rules "political and protectionist in nature," and are pressing U.S. officials, including President (George W.) Bush to step up their response. The meat industry also warns that the rejections bode poorly for the upcoming talks, which have moved more slowly than trade officials originally hoped. Truitt said a free-trade deal was meaningless if Korea was unwilling to accept U.S. products. "There is no way NCBA is going to accept an FTA (Free Trade Agreement with South Korea) if there is no meaningful beef trade," he said. "The Koreans understand that trade needs to flow before the talks advance much further," Reddington said. South Korea was the third-largest market for U.S. beef before it closed its market. (Additional reporting by Charles Abbott)
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