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Senior experts from Korea and the U.S. will on Friday meet to discuss giving U.S. beef greater access to the Korean market. The beef meeting is the first in seven months after the talks collapsed last October. The two sides are expected to strike an agreement because Seoul wants the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement ratified in both countries and Washington is demanding a settlement of the beef issue as a precondition. A Korean government official said that the further opening of the Korean beef market is ¡°an urgent issue.¡±
In the first talks, Korea proposed gradual market expansion to import bone-in-beef from animals under 30 months in the first phase and then to allow in ribs from cattle over 30 months in the second phase. But the U.S. rejected the offer, demanding Korea must fully open its domestic beef market as all cattle parts, regardless of age, were deemed safe by the World Organization for Animal Health in May last year.
Korea currently imports only boneless meat from cattle under 30 months and bans the import of specified risk materials like the brain and spinal cord, which are feared to cause mad cow disease.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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