Report: S.Korea, US reach beef agreement

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-21  |     ONLINE EDITION

US beef exports to South Korea will only come from cattle younger than 30-months old, a news report said today, in a deal made to placate South Korean protesters worried about mad cow disease.

An age-verification system will be set up to ensure only US beef from younger cattle is exported under the agreement reached last week between South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon and his US counterpart Susan Schwab, Yonhap news agency reported, without citing sources.

Younger cattle are considered less at risk for mad cow disease.

The deal was made in an effort to halt daily demonstrations in South Korea over the past month that have brought tens of thousands of protesters to the streets and threatened the stability of President Lee Myung-bak's government.

Weeks of anti-government protests climaxed last week with a candlelight rally that drew some 80,000 people, but the protests have dwindled since as the government began seeking to limit a recent import deal with the United States.

The Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the news report today.

South Korea was to announce details of the latest agreement later today, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday.

South Korea was the third-largest overseas market for US beef until it banned imports after a case of mad cow disease was detected in 2003 -- the first of three confirmed cases in the United States.

Both countries have said they will not renegotiate an April agreement reopening South Korea's market to American beef. The April 18 deal allows the US to export beef to the country without any age restrictions.

US beef exporters said they were prepared to limit products to South Korea to those from cattle less than 30-months old, according to a letter posted yesterday on the Web site of the US Meat Export Federation, one of three associations representing the US beef industry.