U.S. Demands Revision of Korea’s Meat Quarantine Inspection Guidelines

The U.S. urged expedited negotiations for revising Korea’s meat quarantine guidelines after quarantine inspections on its beef imports were put on hold following the discovery of a box containing cow backbones, which is categorized as specified risk material (SRM).

According to the Korean Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry yesterday, the U.S. requested a discussion of revisions of the import quarantine guidelines to align with the OIE guidelines on August 2, the day after the quarantine inspections were suspended.

Under the existing guidelines, cow backbones fall into the category of SRM, of which imports are banned. According to the World Organization of Animal Health (OIE) rules, however, backbones from cows under 30 months old are considered non-SRM parts.

Under these circumstances, the U.S. demanded a revision of Korea’s guidelines to follow the OIE classification to prevent a ban on its beef imports, although it accepted Korea’s suspension of inspections.

The country officially requested Korea change its guidelines that stipulate only the import of boneless beef from animals under 30 months old, after it was given mad cow "risk controlled status" by the OIE in May.

The Korean Agriculture Ministry was planning to finalize the government’s offer on the revision by holding a meeting last month. But the meeting was postponed following a series of guideline violations by the U.S..

A Korean Agriculture Ministry official said, “We made it clear that we won’t have revision negotiations until the cause of the violations and countermeasures emerge to prevent similar incidents from happening.”

imsoo@donga.com