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Rib bones measuring up to 15 cm have been found in a recent shipment of beef imported from the U.S. in violation of an import agreement that only permits boneless meat. As a result, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry suspended beef shipments from one meat processing plant in the U.S. The ministry on Wednesday said quarantine inspections of 492 boxes of beef or 15.2 tons imported via Busan Port last Friday found bone-in beef parts in two boxes or 53 kg. The ministry therefore decided temporarily to suspend shipments from one of the 36 U.S. plants authorized to process Korea-bound meat.
According to the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service, all four vacuum-packed packages in one of the two boxes contained 12 to 15 cm-long rib bones, while the other box contained 5 to 9 cm-long rib bones. The meat processing plant win question also had shipments temporarily suspended by the Japanese government on May 18. "The rib bones are so large that we can identify them with the naked eye without having to use X-ray,¡± a quarantine official said. He said this distinguished them from earlier shipments which more controversially halted exports due to minute bone chips they contained as a result of boning the flesh. ¡°The latest case is serious because these are sizeable bone-in beef parts,¡± he added.
The government on Monday announced it will consider revising import quarantine rules and importing bone-in American beef too. But under the existing rules, only boneless meat of cattle younger than 30 months can be imported. After consultations with the U.S. in March, the government returned or destroyed the boxes containing bone chips but held off suspending shipments from the processing plant. However, the bigger bones found this time led to the suspension of shipments until the cause has been found, the NVRQS said. The agency notified the U.S. side of its decision and asked for an early investigation. "We¡¯re going to make a final decision whether to return all 492 boxes or only the two in question once we¡¯ve conducting intensive inspections of the other boxes and had an answer from the U.S.," an NVRQS official said.
There has so far been no official response from the U.S. But a government official said Washington ¡°has been pressuring us to open the beef market fully citing the pending congressional ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement. We now wonder what kind of pressure the U.S. will use against us in the wake of the latest suspension of export shipments."
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Hanwoo (Korean cattle) Association Nam Ho-kyung professed outrage, saying the discovery of sizeable bone-in beef parts ¡°shows how much the U.S. looks down on us.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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