KorUS FTA 5th Round, became Beef Negotiation
Lim Eun-Kyung
Free trade negotiations with the United States broke down on Wednesday after South Korean negotiators walked out of three committee meetings.
The issues were anti-dumping rules along with drug meeting, and the negotiation over trade in the auto industry.
Under a proposed FTA, Seoul wants Washington to restrict the imposition of its tough anti-dumping rules on South Korean imports.
Adding to the tension was Seoul’s rejection this week of U.S. beef shipment for the third time in a month after bone fragments were found in the meat in violation of an agreement, under which South Korea resumed imports after banning them for three years because of an outbreak of mad cow disease in the U.S. in 2003.
South Korea lifted the ban on the condition that it would import only boneless meat.
Wendy Cutler, who is heading the U.S. negotiating team said she was “very disappointed” with the Korean decision.
“This is not a commercially viable way in trade of the two major trading partners,” she said. “It seems that we are moving backward on the beef issue rather than forward.”
A total of 11 bone fragments were found in the U.S. beef shipments over the past two weeks and Korea has banned the sale of all the products. Under an agreement, the U.S. is supposed to export only ‘deboned skeletal muscle from carcass’ aged less than 30 months.
△NGOs’ rally urging stopping importation of U.S. beef of Mad Cow Disease ⓒKim Chul-Soo, Voice of People