S. Korea, Canada beef talks delayed: gov't

SEOUL, July 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and Canada have delayed their beef talks
scheduled for this week due to a lack of sufficient information about mad cow
disease, the government said Monday.
The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the two-day
negotiations that were to start Tuesday were called off because more time was
needed to gather related data to effectively hold talks.
Canada, which received a "controlled risk" status from the Paris-based World
Organization for Animal Health in 2007, has been demanding that Seoul lift a ban
that has been in place since May 2003. Canada has since taken the matter to the
World Trade Organization's dispute settlement panel, but said it is willing to
hold bilateral talks to deal with differences.
"The local livestock quarantine consultation committee, which must be held before
any beef import talks take place, was not held," ministry spokesman Kim Jong-hoon
said without going into details. He said the two sides should be able to
reschedule the talks for next month, although no date has been set.
South Korea claimed it is willing to import Canadian beef, but stressed that
strict limits need to be imposed due the 17 cases of mad cow disease reported by
Ottawa so far. The latest case was reported on Feb. 24 of this year.
Mad cow disease, also called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is suspected of
causing the Creutzfeldt-Jakob brain disease in humans.
Before South Korea banned the imports, Canada was the fourth-largest supplier of
beef to South Korea after the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
(END)

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