New Import Conditions for U.S. Beef to be Proclaimed

The announcement is expected to include safety requirements for U.S. beef agreed during Korea-U.S. negotiations on April 18, plus Korean rights to quarantine inspection agreed in follow-up negotiations.

With that, inspection of U.S. beef, halted since October last year, will resume, and the meat will finally hit the shelves here in early June. Before the new agreement, only boneless beef from cattle under the age of 30 months had been allowed in. However, with the agreement, any parts of cattle of any age except for specified risk materials (SRM) including tonsils, distal ileum, brain, eyes, spinal cord, skull, dorsal root ganglia and vertebral column will be admitted.

The conditions will be effective from the day of announcement. Those who protest against the import of U.S. beef claim that loosening of conditions for import increases the risk of mad cow disease. But the government says if SRM without age specification are found in the inspection process, the whole shipment will be sent back. It also dismisses the risk of mad cow disease, emphasizing that the import would be halted immediately should the disease break out in the U.S.

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