hankyoreh

Tomorrow, Thursday, is the day the government promulgates its “Health Conditions on Imports of U.S. Beef.” It says it is going to stick to this schedule. The only way to fix the problems with the beef deal would be to postpone the promulgation of the conditions and renegotiate.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, citing General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and World Trade Organization rules, said she supports Prime Minister Han Seung-soo’s statement that Korea will halt American beef imports if there is an occurrence of mad cow disease in the United States. The government, as happy as if it had met reinforcements, says this means the United States has accepted Korea’s demands, which then also means improvements can be made in Korea’s quarantine inspection “sovereignty.” By the sound of it, this all means that if they find a mad cow in the United States and Korea halts imports in response, the United States is not going to take issue with that kind of move.

That, however, contradicts the deal the two countries arrived at last month. The document itself says that even if there is a case of mad cow disease in the United States, Korea gets to stop imports only if the World Organisation for Animal Health, or OIE, lowers the United States from its “BSE controlled risk” status. Therefore, unless the idea of halting imports the moment U.S. authorities discover a case of mad cow disease in that country is put in writing, it could end up having just been empty words. It will also be hard to say the assurances will work after a change in the U.S. administration.

The government should not try to ride atop Schwab’s comments to evade the controversy. This American proposal, on the one hand, proves the deal was agreed on while it still had unreasonable aspects to it, and it proves the need to put it all in writing after some renegotiation. This is an important issue relating to Korea’s quarantine inspection independence, so it should be part of a newly agreed deal and not stop at being a verbal agreement. It has been revealed that Korea’s negotiation team never even talked with the Americans about the specifics of a stronger “feed ban.” The government boasts that it pressured the Americans into accepting the idea that cows under 30 months old that fail inspection at time of slaughter cannot be used in feed, but the United States is saying that any cow under that age can. Still, the government says there is no real big difference, so it will have to be made to bear responsibility.

Meanwhile, avian influenza has been moving around the country, even appearing in Seoul, a month after an outbreak in Gimje, South Jeolla Province. Hundreds of thousands of ducks and chickens have been buried in the ground, while the poultry industry is on the verge of collapse and concerns about human infection grow. Avian influenza has spread like this because of the “human disaster” factor, the failure of the authorities to respond in a swift and organized fashion. Minister of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Chung Woon-chun should accept responsibility for the shoddy beef deal and the poor response to avian influenza and resign.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]