S. Korea to actively counter Canada`s demand for beef market access

SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to actively counter Canada's demand
for open beef market access currently being reviewed at the World Trade
Organization (WTO), the government said Wednesday.
The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said Seoul is
committed to making known its stance during the ongoing dispute settlement talks
convened at Ottawa's request.
It said that experts are using scientific data and legal arguments to make known
the country's position, and stressed local media reports about the country
opening its market to Canadian beef next year were false.
The WTO panel was formally launched on Aug. 31 with representatives from
Singapore, Chile and Iceland being selected to review claims by both sides.
Full-fledged deliberations are expected to begin next year with the entire
process to take up to two years.
South Korea banned Canadian beef imports from May 2003 after the North American
country reported its first case of mad cow disease. The brain wasting illness is
suspected of causing the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
Ottawa, which received a "controlled risk" classification from the Paris-based
World Organization for Animal Health, however, called on Seoul to lift its beef
ban.
Talks have made little headway in the past few years with the Canadian government
announcing earlier in the year that it wants the WTO to step in.
The dispute settlement panel can compel a country to change its policies or
authorize punitive measures in the case of non-compliance.
Before the ban went into effect, Canada was the fourth-largest supplier of beef
to South Korea after the United States, Australia and New Zealand. It shipped
16,400 tons of beef to South Korea worth US$37.4 million.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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