[Editorial] Be Cautious About Importing U.S. Beef
Is American beef really safe from mad cow disease? If the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is unable to answer that question with confidence, it should refuse to resume imports of U.S. beef and inform president Roh Moo Hyun of its position. American pressure is strong, however, and our government does not seem to have the will it would take to resist.
While a final conclusion has not been made, the agriculture ministry seems to be ready to decide that the beef under 30 months old “with the bone removed” that Korea is to import presents no problems. People close to the ministry say it seems to have tentatively decided that cows born after April 1998 are safe, that being the date the U.S. stopped using animal-based feedstuffs. That is exactly what the U.S. claim happens to be. Unless there is some major turn of events along the way, Korea will decide to import American beef again, prior to the start of the main negotiations on the FTA, just as the U.S. is demanding.
The government needs to listen to the voices of concern. Is not even the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s audit section saying there are holes in its prevention and inspection measures for mad cow disease? Reportedly cows have even been slaughtered without being visually inspected. If you listen to civic and social groups have to say, you have even deeper questions. Despite what the Americans have said, they are not sure about the age of a cow found to have mad cow disease in Alabama last March. There remain concerns that the animal-based feed fed to pigs and chicken could become mixed with feed for cows. The fact that only 1 percent of slaughtered cows are sampled also makes you nervous.
Even if some of the worries have been exaggerated, U.S. beef should not be imported again unless all the concerns are neatly dealt with. The people’s lives can’t be threatened, no matter how important the FTA may be. The government needs to reconfirm whether there are any holes in the system, from import standards to the quarantine regime. The process should be transparent and should not be done hastily. If the U.S. continues to make the resumption of beef imports a prerequisite for FTA negotiations, Korea should give up on signing one.
The Hankyoreh, 19 April 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]