S. Korean gov’t misunderstood animal feed rules

Posted on : 2008-05-12 13:59 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Rules are actually more lenient toward materials used in animal feed production
 a  member of the civic group Lawyers for a Democratic Society
a member of the civic group Lawyers for a Democratic Society

The South Korean government’s misinterpretation of the U.S. government’s rules on animal feed led to a general misunderstanding about the beef agreement between the two countries. Although the U.S. government proposed rules on animal feed that were more lenient with regard to the material that could be used to make the feed, the South Korean government misunderstood the regulation as being tougher on animal feed and lifted the age limit on imports of American meat, allowing imports of meat from cows of any age.

On May 11, Lee Sang-gil, the director of the South Korean Agriculture Ministry’s livestock bureau, said, “It was a mistake because we misinterpreted an English-language press release distributed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.” Lee’s remark was made in response to growing criticism that the South Korean government misunderstood certain facts about the U.S. government’s “strengthened regulations on animal feed” because of errors in translation.

This shows that the South Korean government misunderstood the facts when it announced a revision of quarantine inspection rules after the U.S. beef import agreement was made. In light of this, support is growing for the South Korean government to delay its planned resumption of U.S. beef imports on May 15 and renegotiate the quarantine inspection rules with the U.S. government.

In 2005, the U.S. government announced its intention to revise its rules on animal feed. The proposal was that beef from cattle of any age that was unfit for human consumption could not be used in animal feed unless the brains and spinal cords, which are far more likely to be infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, were removed first.

However, an article in a U.S. government federal newsletter dated April 25, 2008, reported that entire carcasses from cows less than 30 months of age, including brains and spinal cords, would be cleared for use in animal feed, even if they were determined to be unfit for human consumption. Therefore, regulations on animal feed that were made after the agreement on U.S. beef was reached on on April 18 were seen as being more lenient than the ones proposed in 2005.

The South Korean government’s misreading of the U.S. government’s animal feed regulations has led it to pass on the misinformation on to the South Korean public. In a press release dated May 2, titled “Question-and-answer materials on the safety of U.S. beef,” the South Korean government said the tightened U.S. regulation would even ban cattle less than 30 months old that is unfit for human consumption from being used as feed for pigs and other animals. Although the U.S. government said it would allow cattle parts that are unfit for human consumption to be used in animal feed, the South Korean government interpreted the term incorrectly and announced a quarantine inspection rule on all cuts of U.S. beef from animals of more than 30 months of age.

While the South Korean government has admitted its mistake, it has been reluctant to file a complaint with the U.S. government or demand renegotiation of the agreement between the two countries. Lee said, “Our conclusion is that we can’t file a complaint or demand renegotiation (of the deal) because our side had made no clear demands about the details of the new regulation on animal feed in the process of the negotiations with the U.S. Though the content is slightly different, there will be no problems with the new regulation because brains and spinal cords from cattle of less than 30 months of age aren’t special risk materials thought to cause mad cow disease.”

Meanwhile, the civic group Lawyers for a Democratic Society said in a press conference held the same day, “If the U.S. government agreed with our government to issue strengthened regulations on animal feed, and then issued a different statement in its federal newsletter, the U.S. will have committed fraud. Therefore the South Korean government should be able to scrap the agreement on U.S. beef imports.”

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