By Tom Johnston on 5/29/2008 for Meatingplace.com
Seoul has informed Washington that South Korea will resume imports of U.S. beef sometime next week.
"We are still studying the statement released by [Korean Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun], but we welcome his announcement that they have finished the review of public comments and will be implementing the protocol next week," Gretchen Hamel, spokeswoman for U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab, told Meatingplace.com.
The United States and South Korea on April 18 agreed to a new beef protocol lifting almost all restrictions on imports of U.S. beef. Quarantine inspections originally were scheduled to resume May 15, but Seoul stalled in an effort to calm public fears about the safety of U.S. beef. (See Korea again delays U.S. beef imports: report on Meatingplace.com, May 27, 2008.)
Inspections of some 5,300 tons of U.S. beef, held up in storage facilities since Seoul suspended imports of U.S. beef in October, will begin early next week before entering commerce.
"The government has fixed new sanitary conditions for importing beef," Chung told reporters. "The government will prioritize public health and safety in carrying out its policies."
The U.S. Meat Export Federation was pleased to hear the news, but expressed cautious optimism. "We look forward to supplying high-quality, wholesome U.S. beef to South Korea, but this is a volatile situation that changes day by day," USMEF President and CEO Philip Seng said in a statement. "We are monitoring events in Korea very closely."
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