Agmates Editor Steve Truman writes:
The United States and South Korean Governments yesterday caved into people power and agreed to revise the terms of their beef exports agreement as South Korean protesters continue to demand a ban on beef exports from the U.S.
Until now the US government had refused to renegotiate the agreement stuck on the 18th of April. The agreement gave USA beef open access to South Korea and was pivotal to a US-SK Free Trade agreement signed by Pro US Korean President Lee Myung-Bak who only came to power at the end of February.
As a result of almost daily demonstrations that grew as large as 80,000 people (pictured above), Lee replaced all his top advisers and his entire Cabinet also has offered to resign.
In the last week protesters have been calling on President Lee to resign as public confidence in his government plunges.
Protesters have been furious that their government had caved into U.S demands and had failed to consider the public concern about the health risks.
Under the revised deal, the South Korea will only accept beef from cattle aged less than 30 months. Younger cattle are believed to be less prone to mad cow disease. The new restrictions are set to start Monday.
The revised deal is good news for the Australian beef industry that has enjoyed boom trade with the 50 million beef loving population of South Korea since it banned U.S beef in 2003 following the discovery of mad cow disease in the U.S herd.
The U.S had been playing hard ball and refusing to renegotiate the deal. However unrelenting pressure from the people, that if not addressed could ultimately have lead to the down fall of the Korean government has lead them to the back down.
The U.S have until now refused to renegotiate believing any back down because it would set a precedent for other countries to back out of unpopular trade agreements and make it almost impossible to get countries like Japan to drop it’s U.S beef trading restrictions.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a press release:
“The implications of this agreement set an unfortunate precedent for U.S. beef trade with Korea and other countries.”
This is proof that populations of the world are very sensitive about food security. All governments need to be very careful about the policies and legislations they make and the impact those decisions have upon their citizens. Governments who ignore these sensitivities do so at their own peril.
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Have Your Say!
Good story Steve,
This once again demonstrates the real need for an NLIS system in Australia.
It is not the case that the USA has gotten back into the Korean market without a similar system. The Americans problem is that they are unable to reliably trace animal history and therefore prove to buyers the safety of their beef.
Yes they have got beef younger than 30 months in, but not all they wanted. We are wise to have started down the road toward full traceability, should an outbreak of disease occur here we would be far worse off than American producers if we did not have NLIS.
As you have pointed out America has exerted huge pressure on its trading partners, Australia is in no position to exert any pressure on our trading partners. Our export viability depends wholly on our ability to provide a better product than any other exporter, NLIS is the first step in that process.
We need to get on with the job of full implementation and work through the inevitable speed bumps that occur when undertaking such a large and complicated project.
G’day Charlie,
Thanks for that. You know even though we have run a series anti NLIS articles from different folks over time - I don’t know that anybody could argue with you over the points you have made.
South Korea is the premium beef market in the world. The people of SK are passionate about the safety of their beef. Australian has benefited hugely because we are clean & green beef producers.
If NLIS enhances that, how do you argue against it?
I respectfully beg to differ with the first commentator.
As a rancher/homesteader here in the States who has been battling for over two years to put a stop to our proposed NAIS, we can tell you that buyers like South Korea are not wanting TAGGED and tracked animals (that all stops at the processor and doesn’t guarantee “safe” meat at all!), they want TESTED beef (and that is what Japan is asking for, too).
And our USDA won’t let us test even though we have processors willing to do that at their own expense! Why? If food safety is the crutch of the animal ID, why won’t they let all of us just test away? The USDA is now in court with Creekstone Processors over this very thing (Creekstone won the first round - the judge said the government couldn’t stop private individuals from testing if they want to - the USDA appealed).
Putting a tag on a cow is not going to guarantee it’s free of BSE or anything else - and it won’t give you traceback to the farmer once that animal is dead and in the system. But it does give the government CONTROL over the individual independent animal owners/producers AND THEIR LAND.
And they are meeting huge and heated resistance here as more and more people are getting all the details about the NAIS - like we say, the devil is in the details and the USDA works hard at making sure a party doesn’t have all those little details when they are begging you to sign on the dotted line for that premise ID number.
We call that fraud. And if they are working that hard to keep people from knowing *all* the facts, that’s when you start to back off and start asking the big WHY?
Dig into where and who these trade treaties are coming from and who they are benefiting - it sure isn’t benefiting your independent producers and animal owners (our NAIS would suck in even people who have just ONE animal as a PET). And it is not benefiting your nation. It is benefiting certain global corporate agri-businesses who are moving to have control of the world’s food supply with open borders everywhere.
They could care less about YOU or your food safety or your profits and sales to other nations.
In this nation (and we know of it also in the UK), they are setting up huge complexes with scores of houses of poultry or swine, etc. in one place and cutting out their independent producers who depend on them as their only buyers. We have personally talked with some of these poultry and swine producers who have been left high and dry and in deep financial trouble. One producer has taken the USDA to court over this happening to him.
I am friends with your Aussie rancher, Jen, who posts on this website. We both breed Morgan horses. I’ve known her via the internet for several years. And she’s shared with me the nightmares she and others she knows of your NLIS.
She’s told us of the insane costs and demands she’s having to deal with and trying to survive while you are also having such a horrible ongoing drought.
We are also members of R-CALF USA who is fighting for the independent cattle producers.
We all want safe food - that’s why our family grows most of our own food or we buy locally so we know how it’s grown and where it’s coming from! You can’t get any safer than that! - but putting all of the food control into the hands of global entities such as the OIE and international bankers is NOT the answer!
They do not have our national best interests at heart. Check it out for yourself. Our family has been deep into this for 2 1/2 years. We’ve read the documents. Have you?
G’day Anita & Charlie,
Has the USDA been telling you & US beef producers that a NLIS system will make the South Koreans and Japanese happy to accept US beef of all ages?
If all the SK & Japanese want is beef over 30 months tested why are the USDA fighting in the courts to stop Creekstone doing that? Whats the story there?
I must say that in all the research I’ve done on the South Korean issue I have never seen any mention of NLIS / NAIS as one of their demands.
What about you Charlie - Do you know of any?