US and S. Korea to discuss beef import impasse

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-17 10:53

SEOUL, South Korea -- Talks between the top US and South Korean trade envoys aimed at resolving a political crisis in Seoul over renewing imports of American beef have been delayed by one day, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon had been expected to meet his US counterpart Susan Schwab in Washington on Monday to discuss the issue.

The talks were rescheduled for Tuesday, an official of South Korea's Foreign Ministry said.

The official declined to give further details and asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Unofficial meetings between the two sides took place Monday in Washington, and the US presented a proposal to the South Koreans, the official said, without elaborating on who was involved or the details of the proposal.

Talks last week on the dispute produced no immediate breakthroughs.

South Korea is asking that US exporters send meat only from younger cattle, considered less at risk of mad cow disease, despite an April agreement that makes no such restrictions and statements from both governments that they do not intend to renegotiate the accord.

"The two sides agreed to cooperate to produce a solution that can satisfy each other," the Foreign Ministry said Monday in a statement.

South Korea's government agreed in April to reopen its market for US beef, scrapping nearly all quarantine regulations, following earlier curbs imposed because of mad cow disease.

But protesters in South Korea say the accord does not adequately protect against the illness and have put intense pressure on the pro-US government of President Lee Myung-bak to change the import deal or resign.

The Foreign Ministry said Seoul and Washington need more time to work out effective measures under which South Korea would only import beef from cattle younger than 30 months, adding the two sides will continue talks through diplomatic channels.

Cattle older than 30 months are believed to be more susceptible to mad cow disease. Other countries restrict imports of older American beef, such as Japan that only allows meat from cattle younger than 20 months.

Lee vowed Sunday not to allow the import of meat from older cattle, in hopes of quelling public anger that triggered weeks of candlelight vigils and sometimes violent protests. Lee said he had a positive reply from the US on measures under which the American beef industry would voluntarily not ship meat from cattle older than 30 months. Lee called the voluntary restraint the most rational measure to resolve the beef dispute.

The entire Cabinet offered to resign last week in an apparent attempt to dampen public anger.

Mad cow disease is the common name for a brain-wasting disease in cattle called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. In people, eating meat contaminated with BSE is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare and deadly nerve disease.