South Korea re-establishes ban on US beef
Wichita Business Journal, USA
South Korea re-establishes ban on U.S. beef
by Ken Vandruff
4 June 2007
South Korea has banned U.S. beef shipments to that country after two recent shipments contained products that were intended for consumption in the United States.
South Korean officials asked Washington for an explanation after banned rib bones were found in two boxes of a 15-ton shipment of products produced by Cargill Inc.
A 51-ton shipment from Tyson Foods Inc. also contain products that were intended for U.S. consumption and not for export.
South Korea had partially reopened its market to boneless U.S. beef from cattle younger than 30 months after banning all imports in 2003 over concerns about potential contamination with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also referred to as mad cow disease.
Mark Klein, spokesman for Cargill, says the products in question were produced for U.S. consumption and sold to another company. Klein says the boxes in question were clearly marked for domestic use only.
"With the ongoing negotiations on the Korea Free Trade Agreement, it would be senseless for a company like Cargill to try test the system," Klein says. "There was a mixup somewhere, but it’s really USDA that would have to say what that was."
Beef is not part of the recent free-trade agreement between the U.S. and South Korea. Washington had demanded greater access to South Korea’s beef market to help generate support since the agreement must still be approved by Congress.
