South Korea could decide by Friday whether to allow the first shipment of US beef into the country since 2003, a beef importer said on Thursday, while a US Senator said a rejection could scuttle a trade deal.
South Korea, which struck a free trade deal with the United States earlier this month, had ordered the rejection of all 22 tonnes of beef sent in three shipments after finding bone fragments the size of peas and grains of rice. Customs and quarantine inspectors have been using X-ray machines to check for bone chips in the first shipment of US beef that has arrived since then - a 6.4 tonne shipment that landed at an airport near Seoul on Monday.
"The result could come out on Friday or next Monday. After that, we can put the beef on the market," the beef importer said. The beef is likely to make its way to South Korean customers because no bone chips were found during inspection, Yonhap news agency reported, citing another importer.
South Korean farm ministry officials said they cannot confirm the exact timing of Seoul's decision. A 2.4-tonne shipment of US beef landed at the airport on Thursday, they added. South Korean quarantine officials said they have changed their guidelines and will not reject all of the beef that arrived since Monday if bone chips are found, but only the packages containing chips.
Seoul had barred the imports after an outbreak mad cow disease in the United States in December 2003. South Korean consumers now pay some of the highest prices in the world for beef but many have said they are still worried about the safety of the American product.
Once the third-largest export market for US beef, South Korea in September partially reopened its market to US beef from cattle less than 30 months old on condition that parts deemed risky, such as bones, were not included.
But tough inspections made it nearly impossible for US meat to reach the market. The rejection infuriated Washington and US cattle producers who said the beef dispute, although separate from the free trade agreement, could harm that deal.
The US Senate's top lawmaker on international trade issued a stern missive to South Korea's president, warning that failure to end a row over beef will threaten the newly minted trade pact.
"My support for (US-Korea trade) agreement hinges on whether Korea commits to lift its unscientific ban on exports of American beef," Sen. Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, wrote in a letter to President Roh Moo-hyun.