US Beef Ban Extended Through April

Imports of beef from the U.S. are expected to resume in late April at the earliest after being initially projected to resume in late March. The delay comes after the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry announced on March 17 that it has decided to delay onsite inspections of the U.S. export system.

“It will take about two weeks to confirm reports on findings such as the age of cows found to be infected by the mad cow disease in Alabama. If there are no problems, we will start onsite inspections in about two to three weeks,” said Kim Chang-shup of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

Sun-Woo Kim sublime@donga.com