hankyoreh

It has been confirmed that Seoul made yet another mistake in its negotiations with Washington on resumption of U.S. beef imports. Now, it seems that Korean people will be expected to eat animal parts classified as specified risk materials in the United States, including bones and nerves attached to the backbone and cervical vertebrae and a part of the tailbone. It is said that these parts are essential ingredients for tail soup, head meat and T-bone steak, which are Korean favorites. However, most of these parts have been prohibited from trading by the World Organization for Animal Health, or OIE, because they can cause mad cow disease.

The fact that the parts designated as specified risk materials by the U.S. Agriculture Department are different from those listed in the new import conditions was raised at the National Assembly on May 14, but the government can’t seem to offer a proper explanation for the discrepancy. The United States has reportedly put pressure on Korea to import these parts for a long time.
As it stands, it is highly possible that the United States forced the adoption of the regulation in order to more easily export the parts enjoyed by Korean people. If the nation accepted an unreasonable demand from the United States, the government should correct it immediately. The government has, in essence, made its citizens the subjects of experimental tests on live human bodies. If the government didn’t know about the regulation, then it negotiated improperly.

The government maintains that it had pressured the United States to make tougher animal feed regulations that were actually discovered to be weaker than those proposed by the United States in 2005. When combined with the most recent confusion, the entire situation has got people feeling discouraged. As it is not clear whether or not the government knew about the regulation during the course of its negotiations, we want to know if it signed the agreement with its eyes closed. It is very hard to trust the government assertion that Americans and Koreans will be eating the same beef.

Though there have been a host of problems with the U.S. beef agreement, the government should correct the errors by renegotiating the points related to SRMs and rules on the use of animal products in animal feed. Korea can request renegotiation if there is a scientific basis for it, or if new circumstances arise, according to Minister of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Chung Woon-chun. The current controversy corresponds to such reasons. The two nations have agreed that Korea can stop importing American beef if a case of mad cow disease is found in the United States; the terms should be clarified and included in the agreement.

Fortunately, the government has postponed the official announcement of sanitary conditions for beef imports. The government says that it needs time to review public opinion and the findings of an inspection team currently surveying slaughterhouses in the United States, but that there will be no renegotiation of the deal. If government refuses to renegotiate, even if there are clear reasons to do so, it will be unable to escape the criticism that it has delayed the official announcement of the agreement just to temper pubic opinion. The government should negotiate again if necessary, just as Korea renegotiated the free trade agreement with the United States last year.

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