South Korea and the US neared an agreement to renew imports of US beef, aimed at defusing a political crisis in Seoul over fears of mad cow disease, officials said yesterday.
The comments came a day after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak pledged to keep US beef out of South Korea unless Washington limits exports to younger cattle — considered less at risk for mad cow disease — seeking to placate protesters who have held daily anti-government demonstrations.
The two sides “neared a result that can satisfy each other,” the South’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the talks between South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon and his US counterpart Susan Schwab ended in Washington.
Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said South Korea is expected to announce the details today after Kim reports to Lee and consults with related ministries.
“We have made good progress this week and are close to reaching a mutually agreeable path forward,” the US trade representative’s spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said in Washington.
While both governments have said they will not renegotiate an earlier agreement reopening South Korea’s market to US meat, US suppliers were expected to voluntarily pledge not to export beef from older cattle.
About 120 South Korean meat importers said yesterday that they would only import US beef from cattle less than 30 months old to maintain the public’s trust.
“We will ensure that the US beef older than 30 months would not be distributed” in South Korea, Park Chang-gyu, president of the Meat Import Association, said in a statement.
In a nationally televised address on Thursday, Lee said he will “ensure that US beef older than 30 months will not be put on our dinner tables as long as people don’t want it.”
The South Korean leader said he told US President George W. Bush earlier this month that South Korea “would not be able to import US beef” if his demands to block beef from older cattle were not accepted.
South Korea suspended imports of US beef after the first case of mad cow disease appeared in December 2003, closing what had been the third-largest foreign market for the US.
Lee also apologized over his April decision to allow resumed imports of US beef, saying he thought it would help passage of a broader free-trade deal with the US.
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