S. Korea set to resume beef talks with Canada in November

SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will reopen negotiations with Canada on
beef imports in early November, almost a year after their talks were suspended,
Seoul officials said Sunday.
South Korea banned Canadian beef in May 2003 after a case of mad cow disease was
reported in the country. Canada was previously the fourth-biggest exporter of
beef to South Korea, behind the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.
Officials at the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said
working-level officials from the two countries will hold technical consultations
on beef in Seoul from Nov. 3.
The latest round of bilateral talks was held in Seoul in late November last year,
but both sides failed to reach any agreement.
"With the beef talks with the U.S. concluded, the government cannot delay
negotiations with Canada any longer," a ministry official said. "We expect Canada
to accept a proposal to allow the import of bone-in beef less than 30 months old,
with certain specified risk materials excluded."
Specified risk materials (SRMs) refer to brains, eyes, tonsils and intestine
parts which run the highest risk of transmitting bovine spongiform
encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, to humans.
Canada has demanded that South Korea lift all restrictions on beef imports after
the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in May last year gave Ottawa a
"controlled risk" classification, which technically allows it to export all beef
parts with the exception of certain SRMs.
The planned talks with Canada come after South Korea eliminated almost all
restrictions on the import of U.S. beef in June this year, nearly five years
after a total ban was imposed following the discovery of a mad cow case in the
U.S.