South Korea agrees to resume US beef imports

SEOUL: South Korea has tentatively agreed to resume US beef imports halted over concerns of mad cow disease, a news report said Friday, just hours before a summit between the two countries’ leaders.

The deal was reached during overnight negotiations in Seoul between the sides, which were drafting an agreement to be announced later Friday, Yonhap news agency reported, citing the Agriculture Ministry.

Ministry spokesman Kim Hyun-soo said the two sides reached agreement on “key sticking points” and were fine-tuning the wording of an agreement. He did not elaborate, saying only that there would be an announcement later Friday. The agreement, if confirmed, would be a concession by Seoul aimed at getting the US to ratify a broader free-trade deal struck last year between the two sides. The reported breakthrough came as new South Korean President Lee Myung-bak prepared to start his first summit with US President George W. Bush on Friday in the United States.

Yonhap said Seoul has agreed to relax quarantine regulations to allow imports of rib bones and beef of all ages. It was not clear if Seoul would allow imports of other previously banned parts, such as spinal columns, skulls and intestinal parts believed at risk of carrying the brain-wasting disease that may pose a danger to humans.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Korea said in a statement that South Korea had agreed to allow beef of all ages and all cuts. “The previous Korean government had promised to open the beef market over and over again for over two years, but did not keep their promise,” chamber Chairman William Oberlin, who was accompanying Lee in the US, said in the statement. “However, President Lee, who has only been in power for less than two months, made this possible.”

The US has demanded Seoul fully open its beef market, saying it is needed for congressional leaders in Washington to back a free-trade accord that the two countries signed last year. Washington has also argued that American beef has been certified as safe by the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health. South Korea suspended US beef imports in 2003 after mad cow disease was discovered in the US, cutting off what was then the third-largest market for American beef. – AP