South Korea yesterday resumed imports of US beef, ending a three-year ban over mad cow disease, officials said.
Nine tonnes of boneless beef from a Kansas-based slaughterhouse arrived at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, for quarantine inspection before sale, the agriculture ministry said.
Seoul banned imports of US beef in December 2003 to keep out mad-cow disease. It agreed in January to partially lift the ban but delayed the import resumption after a new US mad cow case reported in March.
"The imported US beef will be subject to thorough quarantine inspections," Park Kyong-il of the National Veterinary and Quarantine Service said.
He said inspectors would unpack and scrutinize all 700-odd boxes of beef one by one to see if they contain harmful levels of antibiotics or banned body parts such as bones.
"The US beef, if found to have no quarantine problems, will be on sale here in the local market around mid-November," he added.
South Korea is the last major Asian market to reopen its doors to US beef after a series of bans were imposed in late 2003 in response to the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, in a US cow.
Before the ban was introduced, South Korea imported more than US$814 million worth of beef, with boneless beef accounting for US$449 million.
The country now permits imports of only boneless beef taken from US cattle aged less than 30 months.
South Korea's partial lifting of a ban on imports of US beef was announced to facilitate free-trade talks with the US, now underway.
South Korea is the US' seventh-biggest trading partner. Bilateral trade last year totaled US$72 billion.
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