U.S., South Korea agree to begin talks aimed at ending ban on U.S. beef

SEOUL (AP)--South Korea and the United States agreed Dec. 20 to begin talks next month on resuming American beef imports following a two-year ban over bovine spongiform encephalopathy fears.

"South Korea and the U.S. reached an understanding that they would resume negotiations in the middle of January," said Park Hyun-chool, director general of the livestock bureau under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

The decision, which came during a 50-minute meeting between the U.S. undersecretary of agriculture for farm and foreign agricultural services, J.B. Penn, and South Korean Vice Agriculture Minister Lee Myung-soo, would mark the first step in reopening what had been the third-largest export market for American beef.

It follows the recent announcement by an advisory committee that banned U.S. beef could be considered safe to eat if stronger inspection and quarantine measures are taken. The committee also said there were no decisive grounds to say U.S. beef was not safe.

South Korea slapped the ban on U.S. beef imports in December 2003 after a Holstein cow in the U.S. state of Washington tested positive for BSE. South Korea has so far rebuffed repeated U.S. requests to end the ban, citing health and safety concerns.

During the Dec. 20 meeting, South Korea and the U.S. did not go into details on specific import conditions, such as designating U.S. slaughter houses allowed to process beef going to South Korea, Park said, calling it premature.

Park said the sides will discuss details when they open negotiations next month.

Before the ban, South Korea had been the third-largest market for U.S. beef exports. In 2002, the country imported 213,000 tons of U.S. beef worth US$610 million, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation. The top two exporters to South Korea now are Australia and New Zealand.

Japan, which had a similar ban, eased its ban on U.S. and Canadian beef last week after two years of negotiations and a lengthy approval process.

Scientists believe BSE is spread when farmers feed cattle with recycled meat and bones from infected animals. It is thought to cause the fatal human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.