By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
South Korea has suspended quarantine inspections of U.S. beef after some banned material was found in a recent shipment. But the move is unlikely to lead to a complete ban of U.S. imports, according to officials in Seoul Thursday.
Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry confirmed the suspension of quarantine inspections of all U.S. beef shipments Wednesday. No foreign beef can be delivered to the local market without such inspections.
The move came after officials discovered a package of vertebral columns, designated as specified risk materials (SRM), which could potentially cause mad cow disease, in an 18.7 ton shipment the U.S. made late last month.
``We found the vertebral columns in one of the 1,176 boxes shipped on July 29,’’ Kang Mun-il, head of the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service (NVRQS), said. ``We demanded an explanation from the United States and asked them to institute measures to prevent a recurrence.’’
Under the agreement with South Korea, the United States can export only meat without bones or other SRMs, including brains, eyes, tonsils and spinal cords. Seoul can even stop imports of all U.S. beef if an SRM-containing shipment is found.
But the authorities said the latest case would not lead to a full-scale ban on U.S. imports. With the quarantine inspections suspended, the beef will be kept in the storehouses, according to the officials.
The latest development is expected to have a negative impact on talks between Seoul and Washington, which have been making efforts for a full reopening of the domestic beef market.
South Korea shut its doors to American beef in December 2003 after mad cow disease was found in cattle in the U.S. Seoul partially lifted the ban last year, but agreed to accept only boneless meat from cattle under 30 months old, regarded as less dangerous.
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Park Hong-soo said that the quarantine inspection has little to do with the South Korea-U.S. FTA, which awaits endorsement from legislative bodies of both the countries.
``We met related ministers (to discuss the matter of U.S. beef),’’ he said. ``But there was not a single word about the FTA even from the Ministry of Finance and Economy or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.’’
In May, the World Organization for Animal Health gave the U.S. and Canada the second-best safety rating for mad cow disease risk, paving the way for the countries to pressure other countries to lift their bans on beef imports.
South Korea was expected to resume imports of all U.S. beef products, even those with bones, from September. But repeated shipment problems dealt a setback to the U.S. efforts to regain access to the domestic market.
In early June, the government lifted the temporary ban on U.S. beef imports that was imposed in early May when bone fragments were discovered in beef shipments from plants owned by Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Inc.