KEY POINTS:
A key US senator today accused South Korea of unfairly blocking US beef shipments as the two countries prepared to launch a fifth round of talks on a trade deal.
Sen. Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who helped arrange the fifth round of talks this week on a proposed US-Korea trade deal, ate a T-bone steak in front of reporters as he praised the quality of US beef, which has been blocked almost entirely from the Korean market since 2003.
The US meat industry is watching the talks with South Korea -- the world's 11th largest economy -- warily. Seoul a few days ago rejected a second shipment of US beef in a week because it contained bone fragments.
"I have a beef with Korea," Baucus said before meeting with Korean Ambassador Lee Tae-Sik and trade officials in Big Sky, Montana, where the talk will be held this week.
"Korea's beef ban, including its rejection of two US beef shipments this week, is not based on sound science. If we are to move forward with full trade between our two countries, this ban cannot stand," said the lawmaker, who will head the influential Senate Finance Committee once Democrats take control of Congress in January.
The consecutive rejections marked a dubious restart to meat imports from the United States, which were barred since the first US case of mad cow disease in 2003 but were supposed to open up after an agreement this autumn.
Now, South Korea accepts only boneless beef from cattle up to 30 months of age. Before the 2003 ban, it purchased ribs and other bone-in products and was the third-biggest customer for US beef.
Officials in Seoul say trade will continue from some US plants but caution that they will bar all US beef if material like brains or spinal cords are found.
Many in the US meat industry say the meat dispute casts doubt on the wisdom of brokering a bilateral trade deal with South Korea.
"I recognise that getting an agreement on agriculture will not be easy. But it is absolutely vital to ensuring the benefits of this (free trade agreement)," Baucus said in prepared remarks to a dinner on Saturday evening.
The dispute over beef is not the only agricultural issue likely to present difficulties in the talks. The South Koreans also want to leave out rice -- a sensitive subject -- from the deal, which US officials have said is impossible.
There has also been contention over pharmaceutical, automotive and textile issues.
- REUTERS
