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Wednesday May 14, 5:19 PM
South Korea to Delay Implementing U.S. Beef Import RulesSEOUL, May 14 Asia Pulse - South Korea will delay the implementation of the new U.S. beef import rules by seven to 10 days to deal with due administrative processes, a senior policymaker said Wednesday. Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun said it is physically impossible to post the official notification for the new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) conditions by Thursday.
Chung said because officials must look over each request and petition and answer them individually, it may not be possible to implement the pact according to the original timetable. Most of the requests for a reexamination of the SPS rules were made by civic and farmers' groups. "Depending on close inspection of concerns being raised, there may be some changes to the final notification," he said. He then added that the extra time is to be used to look over the country's import quarantine system and take necessary measures in case shortcomings are discovered. Despite Chung's hint that some fine-tuning to the SPS may be made, a ministry spokesman guarded against speculation that Seoul is seeking a renegotiation. "If there are no unforeseen developments the minister should post the new SPS conditions on the government gazette," ministry spokesman Kim Hyeon-soo said. He said a delay does not automatically translate into renegotiations or moves to change the original pact. Other experts inside the ministry speculated that official posting of the new import standards should take place around May 25, after the fact-finding team that left for the U.S. on Monday returns home and submits its report on its inspection of the 31 meat processing facilities that can ship beef to South Korea. "There will be a comprehensive examination of public sentiment and efforts to alleviate concerns before the new pact goes into effect," a source, who declined to be identified, said. Under South Korean law, the agriculture minister has the authority to post the notice of the pact that will then govern sanitation inspection rules for imported meat. Seoul, however, is obliged to receive petitions and look over them carefully. The revised SPS rules effectively allow most U.S. beef cuts, including bone-in beef and by-products to be imported if all specific risk materials are removed. This replaces an earlier set of guidelines signed in January 2006 that only permits boneless meat from animals under 30 months old to be imported. South Korea which has been importing U.S. beef since the 1970s placed a blanket ban after the conformation of a mad cow case in late 2003. U.S. beef were again imported for domestic consumption in April 2007, but all quarantine inspections have been halted in early October after U.S. meat packaging plants shipped banned backbones and ribs. (Yonhap)
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