That finally settles the issue of Korea opening its market for more American beef imports, which the U.S. has set forth as a condition for ratifying the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, some four years after mad cow disease or BSE broke out in America.

Assistant Agriculture Minister Min Dong-seok on Friday said the eight-day high-level talks that started April 11 saw Korea agree “to expand American beef imports on a step-by-step basis. American beef imports will resume according to the new import conditions from mid-May at the earliest."

In the first stage, all beef parts except tonsils and distal ileum will be imported if the meat comes from cattle under 30 months old, including the brain, eyes, skull, spinal cord marrow and vertebrae.

For the second stage, Seoul will permit meat from cattle over 30 months old as long as additional specified risk materials (SRMs) are removed, predicated on an official pledge from the U.S to strengthen control and monitoring over the manufacture and sale of protein-based feeds to prevent the spread of BSE.

Korean consumers are likely to welcome the move, since U.S. beef is of good quality and a relatively low price -- half to one-quarter that of Korean beef. But anti-FTA activists accused the South Korean government of concluding a “raw" deal with a view to facilitating President Lee Myung-bak's visit to the U.S. and ratification of the FTA. They say the deal increases public concerns about mad cow disease.

Once imports of U.S. beef resume, it will be difficult for Korea to suspend them immediately if BSE breaks out again in the U.S. Experts say consumers should be mostly concerned that the agreement lifts requirements to document the age of butchered cattle, except for T-bone steak.

(englishnews@chosun.com )