November 28, 2006

US -- South Korea -- Beef

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns was cited as telling reporters Tuesday in Washington that South Korea authorities had "invented" a standard for imports when they halted beef shipments from a U.S. meatpacker, adding, "They have applied a standard we did not agree to. It was a standard that they invented along the way."
Cut off by mad cow disease in 2003, American beef shipments had resumed only recently after lengthy negotiations with South Korea.
The country was a major buyer of U.S. beef, purchasing more than $1.2 billion in beef products in the year before the ban, according to the Agriculture Department. Only Japan, with a market once worth $1.4 billion to U.S. producers, was a bigger customer. LINK