Infected US beef could have been on sale

US accused of not sharing enough data

By Park Jae-hyuk

The meat of a cow infected with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), could have been sold here, as the U.S. health authorities did not notice the outbreak of the disease before the cow's death in Alabama last month, according to a legal expert here, Tuesday.

Song Ki-ho of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society disclosed a letter purportedly sent to the government from the U.S. Embassy in Korea. The letter was written under the name of the agricultural affairs official and included additional information on the contaminated cow.

According to the lawyer, the letter reads that the cow died on the night of July 5, before it was transported to a slaughterhouse, and that an official from the Veterinary Services in Alabama took a tissue sample afterwards.

"This means that the U.S. government officials did not know the cow was contaminated before its death," Song said. "If the cow had been sent to a slaughterhouse before it died, its meat would have been on the market. Unless the U.S. government carries out overall inspections on cows there, the country's monitoring of mad cow disease won't be trustworthy."

The page-long letter explained how the U.S. health authorities detected the infection between July 6 and 13.

However, it still did not have the results of an epidemiologic survey, including the cow's age estimation, details on the farm and information on other cows raised there.

Seoul and Washington agreed that the latter immediately launch an epidemiologic investigation and notify the results in case of additional BSE outbreaks in the United States.

Song claimed the U.S. government is breaking its promise to the Korean government.

"The Korean health authorities should stop importing U.S. beef, until the epidemiologic survey results come out," he said. "Also, the requirement for the U.S. beef import should be as strict as that of China, which prohibits the importing of untraceable U.S. beef."

Hopes for FTA renegotiation

In addition to the controversy, livestock farmers in the two countries have lobbied each of their governments which began talks Tuesday over possible revisions to their bilateral Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (KORUS FTA).

The Hanwoo Association in Korea has urged the agriculture ministry to make it easier to take measures to safeguard against U.S. beef and delay the plan to eliminate tariffs on the product. Hanwoo refers to Korean beef. The Korean farmers also want stricter requirements for U.S. beef imports, including a ban in the case of a BSE outbreak.

They said the Korean government should take measures to increase the consumption of Korean beef.

The U.S. farmers, on the other hand, opposed the renegotiation of the KORUS FTA.

National Cattlemen's Beef Association and U.S. Meat Export Federation sent a letter last month to a U.S. agriculture minister, demanding it stop the procedures to revise the agreement.

They are known to have raked in huge profits from Korean consumers since the deal.

The share of U.S. beef in the Korean market has continued to grow, surpassing that of the Australian beef, according to the agriculture ministry here.

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