08/22/06 Re-Opening Korean Beef Market

Re-opening Korean Beef Market. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The pressure's on South Korea to reopen its market to U.S. beef - as Congress and the Bush Administration are turning up the heat. And according to U.S. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns - U.S. lawmakers will soon grow frustrated - and possibly take action against South Korea - if it doesn't lift its two-and-a-half year ban. But National Cattlemen's Beef Association Chief Economist Gregg Doud - says the strategy with Korea is simply to apply increased pressure. And he says the same is true with China and Russia... DOUD: There are three countries left on the planet of any significant consequence for U.S. beef exports that are yet to be opened. They are Russia, China and South Korea. And I think in all three cases the U.S. Congress is turning the heat up as they see fit. Thirty-one Senators recently signed a letter to South Korea's President - warning that the continued beef ban would hurt the chances for a free trade agreement with the U.S. And Doud says NCBA certainly agrees. DOUD: The situation is that the U.S. and Korean government discussed this before we instigated the FTA talks and Korea indicated and it agreed to completely resolve the beef issue before we finalize this agreement and I think that's the expectation from this side. And Doud is optimistic. With the last group of Korean auditors coming later this month to get a look at a few more beef plants - and the country's President coming in September - Doud says the South Korean market - previously America's third largest beef market - could reopen very soon. DOUD: We are within the not too distant future expecting to resume trade with South Korea as part of the beginning of the FTA negotiations Korea indicated that they would resume trade; there's been a tremendous amount of dialog between the U.S. and South Korea on resuming trade. And once imports of U.S. beef are allowed in South Korea - Doud predicts the U.S. beef industry will hit the ground running. DOUD: What we had in Korea was about a years worth of U.S. beef in frozen storage. Throughout the entirety of 2004 Korea kept right on eating U.S. beef that it had in freezers over there so it's only been about the last year or year and a half that we've run out of that product in Korea so our anticipation is that we'll hit the ground pretty hard in Korea. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.