S.Korea delays resumption of US beef imports

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s agriculture ministry is
likely to push back by a few weeks its planned date to resume
imports of U.S. beef because of a delay in an inspection tour
of U.S. beef facilities, an official said on Friday.

South Korea had planned to resume beef imports in early
April and now sees a resumption starting in late April or early
May, the official said.

Seoul said earlier this week it would go ahead with its
plan to resume the imports despite a new case of mad cow
disease in the United States.

One of South Korea’s preconditions for the resumption was
an inspection tour of U.S. slaughter houses and beef packers.
The tour had been scheduled to start on Sunday and will now
probably begin in early April, delaying the resumption of
imports, the official said.

South Korea delayed the inspection tour until it received
testing data on the age of a U.S. cow most recently infected
with mad cow disease, the official said.

South Korea, once the third-largest export market for U.S.
beef, banned imports of beef from the United States in December
2003 after the first case of the disease was discovered in the
country.

Under a deal Seoul struck with Washington in January, South
Korea will only allow imports of beef from cattle aged under 30
months, and then on condition that parts it regards as risky,
such as ribs, be removed prior to shipping.

South Korea said the new discovery of mad cow in the United
States did not alter its decision to resume imports because the
cow in question was apparently born before a ban on animal feed
aimed at ending mad cow infections.

An examination of the Alabama cow identified as the third
U.S. case of mad cow disease showed the animal was at least 10
years old, meaning it was born before the 1997 feed ban was
implemented, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

“We have asked Washington to give objective documents to
prove the infected cow’s age,” Kim Chang-sub, director of the
ministry, said in a news briefing.

The age of the animal is significant because one of the two
major safeguards against mad cow disease — a ban on using
cattle parts in cattle feed — began in 1997 and started to be
effective in April 1998. Scientists say mad cow is spread
through infected cattle feed.

“If it is confirmed the Alabama cow with mad cow was born
before the feed ban, we will take measures to resume U.S. beef
imports,” he said.