U.S. says no need to renegotiate S.Korea beef deal
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SEOUL, May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez said on Friday there was no need to renegotiate a beef trade deal with Seoul despite mounting public concern in South Korea over the safety of the product.
South Korea, once the third-largest importer of American beef until a U.S. outbreak of mad cow disease in 2003, had been scheduled to start quarantine inspections on Thursday but has delayed the move for up to 10 days.
"We don't believe the agreement (on beef) needs to be renegotiated," Gutierrez told reporters in the South Korean capital.
"The beef that we'll be selling to Korea is the same beef that we all buy in the U.S., that we feed our children in the U.S. and it is the same beef that Korean Americans eat in the U.S."
The delay is likely to irritate U.S. lawmakers who have said Congress would not approve a sweeping free trade deal with South Korea unless Seoul fully opened its market to U.S. beef.
South Korea's government, clearly taken aback by the public reaction to the beef import agreement, has apologised publicly for its handling of the affair which has seen the approval rating of President Lee Myung-bak plunge after just three months in office.
South Korea imposed a blanket ban on U.S. beef for about three years after an outbreak of mad cow disease there in late 2003. Before then, it imported around 199,000 tonnes worth $850 million of the product a year.
