YONHAP NEWS

(6th LD) S Korea, U.S. conclude talks on beef shipment safeguards: officials

   By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, June 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States Thursday concluded week-long talks to address concerns over the safety of U.S. beef shipments, which have rocked the world's former third biggest U.S. beef importer since early May amid public concerns over mad cow disease.

   "Minister Kim and Ambassador Schwab have concluded talks," Gretchen Hamel, U.S. Trade Representative spokesperson, said in a statement released after a brief afternoon meeting between South Korea's Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab.

   "We have made good progress this week and are close to reaching a mutually agreeable path forward, and now both Minister Kim and Ambassador Schwab will need to consult with their governments and stakeholders."
Emerging from the meeting venue, Kim said he was returning to Seoul, "although the talks have not yet been concluded."
Neither side, however, would reveal the substance of the talks.

   Hamel said the trade ministers "discussed the technical issues and exchanged views on a path leading to the reopening of the Korean beef market and help restore Korean consumer confidence in U.S. beef."
South Korea's embassy said in a statement that "The talks were concluded," but added "We are not in a position to release the outcome of the talks because Minister Kim needs to go back home and report to the President, before making a final decision in consultation with related ministries."
Kim is leaving Washington for Seoul Thursday, the statement said.

   South Korean and U.S. officials have said for the past week they were discussing technical issues on ensuring shipments of beef from cattle less than 30 months old.

   The U.S. beef industry has volunteered to label beef for up to 120 days to show the age of cattle slaughtered with the aim of easing concerns over mad cow disease.

   South Korea wants the U.S. to guarantee the labeling for the time being through issuance of certificates under the export verification program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but the U.S. has resisted, fearing any excessive government involvement may encroach upon World Trade Organization regulations supporting free trade, according to officials and industry sources here.

   Washington's concern is that any significant compromise might undermine its future negotiations with other countries, including Japan, which currently imports beef from cattle less than 20 months old.
The conclusion of the talks, which began last Friday, follows an apology to the nation in Seoul Thursday by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak for causing public concern over beef imports.

   Lee, whose approval rating has plunged to a record low, pledged in a nationally televised news conference that he would not allow imports of U.S. beef from cattle over 30 months old, saying that U.S. President George W. Bush supported his idea in a recent telephone conversation.

   "As long as the Korean people don't want (it), U.S. beef from cattle older than 30 months would never be offered to Korean consumers," he said. "I'll obtain a firm U.S. government guarantee regarding the issue."
Street rallies and candlelight vigils in protest of the April beef deal have crippled Lee's fledgling government, sworn in in February for a single five-year term, leading the entire Cabinet and aides at the presidential office to offer their resignations.

   The beef deal, signed on the eve of Lee's Camp David summit with Bush, hurt the national pride of many South Koreans who denounced Lee for kowtowing to the world's superpower, although Lee said the agreement was needed to help the U.S. Congress ratify a broader free trade deal. Lee has said the free trade agreement (FTA) is badly needed to revive the world's 13th biggest economy, struggling from an economic slowdown affected by the skyrocketing prices of oil and other commodities.

   U.S. lawmakers have threatened to boycott the free trade deal signed in June last year unless Seoul fully reopens its market to U.S. beef, although that agreement is not part of the FTA.

   Critics insist Lee went too far in allowing imports of beef from older cattle, which suffer greater risk of mad cow disease.

   The first case in the U.S., which appeared in 2003, led to an halt in U.S. beef shipments to South Korea, which was at that time the third-largest U.S. overseas beef market.

   There have been three cases of mad cow disease in the U.S. since 2003, the most recent in a single, nonambulatory “downer” cow in Alabama in 2006.

   In March 2007, the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) endorsed safety measures for beef in the United States, where more than 34 million cattle were slaughtered for consumption last year.

   South Korea's previous administration allowed shipments of beef from cattle of less than 30 months old, and suspended U.S. beef imports in October last year because of bone chips detected in a shipment.

   hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)