By Oh Young-jin
Staff Reporter
A senior Korean official said Sunday that it will take up to two years to fully open up markets to U.S. beef as promised in their April 18 agreement.
``It may be one year from now or two years,'' said the top official of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, who was involved in negotiations with the United States on the resumption of beef imports.
``It is important to regain the confidence of Korean consumers,'' the official said on condition of anonymity during his telephone interview with The Korea Times. ``Without it, we will selectively allow imports of U.S. beef parts as agreed during the latest round of talks in Washington.''
The official, however, said that Washington has the right to call for a meeting with Seoul on the subject for reevaluation.
His clarification came a day after Korea and the United States announced that American beef from cattle older than 30 months will be excluded from shipments to Korea as a ``transitional measure.''
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab defined this as ``until there is market demand in Korea for such products.'' In the latest round of negotiations pitting Schwab against Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon, the two sides agreed not only to exclude not only beef from 30-month or older cattle from Korean shipments but also brains, skulls, eyes and spinal cords from all cattle.
In a statement, Schwab reiterated that the April 18 beef deal, coming on the eve of the first summit between President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President George W. Bush at Camp David, was still effective, especially regarding an agreement for Korea to let U.S. gain full access to the Korean market.
The April 18 deal triggered a month-long demonstration that called for the ousting of President Lee and sending his support rate down to single digits. The demonstrations, characterized as candlelit vigils with participants holding candles in paper cups, prompted Lee to dispatch Trade Minister Kim to Washington for what some administration officials called ``an act of brinkmanship'' to force the Bush administration to make a concession.
Kim balked twice during his weeklong meetings with Schwab, threatening to return home, unless she accommodated his demands. Schwab buckled, resulting in a four-point agreement that will have the U.S. Department of Agriculture set up a voluntary quality system assessment program or QSA that will verify shipments exclude beef from cattle older than 30 months; parts from cattle less than 30 months that run a higher potential risk of causing a human form of mad cow disease; allow greater access for Korean inspectors to U.S. slaughterhouses; and will empower Korea to send back shipments that are in violation of the new agreements.
As a result of the agreement, the Lee administration is expected to call a meeting of concerned ministers today.
But the administration will delay posting the new regulations in the government gazette until public outrage over the deal has subsided so as to clear the way for the resumption of inspections on 5,300 tons of U.S. beef awaiting customs clearance, an official said.
Despite the eleventh-hour agreement between the two countries, detractors in Korea and the United States have voiced opposition. ``There is too much room for arbitrary interpretation,'' Prof. Lee Hae-young of Hanshin University, a critic of the deal, said, pointing to the word ``transitional.''
U.S. Federal Sen. Max Baucus, Democrat, Montana, one of U.S. cattle states, was quoted by Yonhap News as saying that the latest agreement ``set an unfortunate precedent for U.S. beef trade with Korea and other countries.''
Korea imposed a blanket ban on U.S. beef in 2003 after the discovery of mad cow disease but allowed back U.S. beef in April last year. Then all imports were halted after U.S. packages were found containing backbones that were classified as specific risk materials.