South Korea Moves Closer To Allowing Beef From Canada.

[joedales]

Key Step Completed on Road towards Canadian beef access to South Korea


Ottawa, Ontario, December 30, 2011 - Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and International Trade Minister Ed Fast today announced that a major step has been taken towards restoring access for Canadian beef in South Korea with the South Korean Parliament ratifying the import health requirements for Canadian beef, under 30 months of age. This is one of the final steps prior to Canadian beef re-entering the South Korean market.



“This has been a long journey and today’s announcement is a big step forward for our hard working beef producers to once again bring their world class product to the South Korean marketplace,” said Minister Ritz. “The re-opening of this market will benefit our industry and the entire Canadian economy and we look forward to the finalization of the commercially viable agreement and the commencement of trade.”



"I recently raised this issue with my Korean counterpart at the WTO. Canada has closely monitored South Korea's domestic process and we are working towards complete access being restored," said Minister Fast. "We will continue to work closely with our South Korean counterparts to deepen the trade ties that create jobs and prosperity in both countries."



Following Canada’s first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in May 2003, South Korea banned Canadian beef and beef products. After years of emphasizing that there is no scientific basis for the ban, Canada requested a World Trade Organization (WTO) Panel to review South Korea's ban on Canadian beef.



Last June, Ministers Ritz and Fast announced a breakthrough in restoring access bilaterally. Both the Canadian and South Korean governments agreed on a process to restore access by the end of 2011. Following this agreement, Canada formally requested a suspension of the WTO proceedings.



The process to restore access is now close to conclusion. Earlier today, the South Korean National Assembly deliberated the issue and passed the Import Health Requirements (IHRs) for Canadian beef. The South Korean Government still has to promulgate the IHRs early in the new year, then issue a list of approved beef establishments for export and formally accept the import health certificates. This is expected to happen early in 2012. South Korea's progress meets timelines established, therefore the WTO Panel remains suspended.



The lucrative South Korean beef market – which Canada Beef Inc estimates could be worth $30 million to Canadian producers by 2015 – was the last major Asian market banning Canadian beef. In 2002, South Korea was Canada's fourth-largest beef market.

[ASRG]

Now if Ritz would cut us a check for poisoning the cattle herd in the first place, things would be good? Coming up to ten years of stalling and refusing to pay up.

[food4u]

Instead of trying to nail the present
government" Why not go after the minister
and bureaucrats that let it happen in the
first place??" Or is there a statue of
limitation on this sort of thing?

[ASRG]

Who were they? Was it under Mulrooney or Chretiens watch?
I think it was the "government of Canada" that allowed the original BSE cattle in, and the infected meal from Britain....long after they knew it was a problem? Therefore the "government of canada" is the one being sued....not any individual?
I wonder if interest on the amount being sued for keeps adding up?

[grassfarmer]

ASRG, Was it not a Canadian rancher that imported
the original BSE case animal in rather than the
Government?
What infected meal was brought in from Britain? don't
think that happened. Still not been proven that the
"contaminated feed" theory was the cause of CDN
cases in any case. Makes it hard to hold the
Government financially responsible.

Should every bar owner be sued for selling a drink to
anyone who subsequently drove drunk? Where does
Government responsibility end personal responsibility
start?

[ASRG]

I'm not sure about all that.....it was a long time ago. I thought the whole point of the law suit was the government failed to stop imports, even though they knew there was a problem in Britain....and they should have shut the door?
I never imported any cows or fed any meal (and you probably didn't either) and yet I was affected just like you, because the government failed to do it's job on food safety.
And yea, I think the bartender can be sued if he keeps selling a drunk drinks? Maybe that shouldn't be, but I think it is the law?

[ASRG]

Did a bit of research on MBM from BSE countries (specifically Britain). Although Canada banned MBM from Britain in early eighties, Canada continued to bring in large amounts from the USA...which continued to bring in MBM from the UK until after 2000. Canada allowed freely allowed imports from the USA, even though the USA was feeding MBM from "BSE positive countries".

Steve Stecklow
Staff Reporter
The Wall Street Journal
11-30-1

Like a mantra, federal officials and beef-industry executives are fond of repeating that there never has been a case of mad-cow disease in the United States.

It's the same claim that Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan used to make -- until the disease showed up in their cattle, instantly resulting in plunging beef sales.

Will the U.S. go down the same road?

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Harvard University plan to release a government-funded study that is expected to show that the U.S. has little chance of facing the kind of mad-cow epidemic that befell Britain, where the disease was first diagnosed in cattle 15 years ago.

But a close examination of America's mad-cow safety net shows some possible flaws. New data provided Tuesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reveal that scores of shipments of animal byproducts for use in animal feed came into the U.S. in recent years from countries that now have mad-cow disease in their cattle herds, a potentially serious source of contamination. In addition, federal inspections have shown that many U.S. animal-feed mills continue to violate regulations designed to prevent the spread of the disease. And critics say the U.S. isn't spending enough time or money inspecting cattle -- or people -- for signs of the sickness.

[kato]

I still remember hearing that when one American cattleman heard about the BSE cow in 2003, the only comment he had was "Don't you people have backhoes up there?" If there's a reason BSE won't be found in the U.S., it's most likely to be because they don't want to find it. Not because it's not there.

The accepted theory behind our BSE fiasco is that we had a positive imported from British cow in 1993 which was found and removed from the food chain. The trouble was that she was only one of a number of imported cows that were here at the time, some of whom had already died and gone through the rendering system. The government knew this, and chose not to impose an immediate feed ban, even after being told the consequences of ignoring it.

This choice, given the knowledge they had, and the potential for disaster that they knew full well was there, is why they are being sued. They had the opportunity to stop this thing before it happened, and chose to waste it.

We have paid a big price for their negligence.

[burnt]

Interesting story. Here is the link to "the rest of the story...". Kinda leaves a few questions over their very lax inspection practices.

http://www.rense.com/general17/usmd.htm

[grassfarmer]

ASRG, A bar owner may well be sued if he continues
to sell drinks to someone who is already intoxicated
but I don't think after a car wreck due to drunk
driving the police find out where the drink was
bought and sue the bar owner - there is a
difference in the two scenarios and I think there is a
parallel between this and the use thing.

Have you any idea how many things the
Government has to deal with on an ongoing basis?
to expect them to always make the right decisions
judged retrospectively is a tough row to hoe.
How many Canadian ranchers or beef producer
organizations were arguing for tougher restrictions
on imported MBM through the 90's when this was
allegedly happening? If we didn't know it was a
threat or weren't doing anything about it and it's
our industry how can we criticize the Government?

If, god forbid, we suffer an FMD outbreak this year
in Canada will we try to sue the Government
retrospectively for not preventing it and not having
a workable traceability system in place? Seems to
me most "industry leaders" spend more time
fighting against having a traceability system than
support it.
Sometimes it's just easier to blame others for our
misfortune. I'm not convinced this was really
anybodies fault at the end of the day. Just an
unfortunate occurrence that with the benefit of
hindsight could have been handled better.