YONHAP NEWS

(LEAD) Beef pact based on science, risks exaggerated: U.S. envoy

   SEOUL, May 8 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow said Thursday that the new import rules for U.S. beef are supported by science, while the risks have been exaggerated.

   In a special lecture given at Korea University in Seoul, the envoy said while he understands South Koreans' worries over food safety, the issue must be approached scientifically, not politically.

   The remarks came as candlelight vigils in Seoul have taken on a political tone, with protestors linking the beef sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) deal with the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement and other issues that could ignite anti-U.S. sentiment.

   "Of the 350 million cows born since the 1997 feed ban, zero have been detected with BSE," Washington's top diplomat in the country said.

   BSE, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a fatal brain-wasting condition commonly called mad cow disease. The U.S. implemented a ban on meat and bone meal (MBM) in 1996, with statistics from the following year used to determine the effectiveness the ban. MBMs have been cited as causing mad cow disease, and eating the meat of such cattle led to humans contracting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The neurodegenerative disease has been responsible for 207 human deaths so far.

   He stressed that research in the past 20 years has effectively removed risks associated with BSE being transmitted to humans.

   Vershbow then said that people should make informed judgments, asking if people want to believe anonymous, vague mobile phone messages and claims circulated on the Internet, or official statements released by governments and international organizations.

   He added that there should be no changes made to the SPS agreement signed on April 18 that effectively opens the South Korean market to most U.S. beef, with the exception of certain specified risk materials (SRMs). SRMs are banned because they pose the greatest risk of transmitting mad cow disease to humans if the animal has BSE.
The diplomat said that Seoul's willingness to push forward the new import rules has generated positive momentum for legislative ratification of the free trade pact signed between Seoul and Washington last year.

   yonngong@yna.co.kr
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