Sacrificing the nations health for American beef
An imported-beef inspection team appointed by the government went to the United States on June 30 for a four-phase appraisal of the risks of American beef. It should be a precise process but everything from the preparation to the actual inspection made it seem as if they were just going through the motions. You worry whether they were adequately inspecting the beef for mad cow risk.
Civic groups are saying they are worried the inspection is actually just a formality ahead of deciding to import beef with bone chips. Recently there have been circumstantial indications that American beef processing centers are not engaging in proper quality management, selling beef for domestic consumption as if prepared for export, and ribs which are prohibited from being imported to Korea are coming into the country sometimes by the boxful. The government needs to invest a lot more time and people into these inspections than it has in the past.
Despite that need, the government inspection team was as unprepared as could be this time as well. Even a day before its departure it had not received a list of the foodstuff plants and slaughterhouses it was supposed to visit, and it had not decided on an itinerary. Most of those details had been determined by the U.S. government. It is only to be expected that the side being inspected is going to show the inspectors the places in the best condition. One cannot understand how the sites to be inspected and the itinerary, which naturally should have been determined by Korea, was instead decided by the Americans.
And that is not all. During the inspection which occurred prior to resuming beef imports in 2006, the delegation was composed of eleven government inspectors and two representatives from civic groups. This time eight government officials went, but the experts recommended by the National Assembly were not even issued American visas, because the government had asked it to recommend people just two days before it was time to leave. You wonder whether it had any intention of having experts from the National Assembly at all. There was also insufficient time to visit the relevant sites. There was an eight-day itinerary, but since that included holidays and American Independence Day, only four days were available for visiting actual sites for inspection. It is hard to rid yourself of the suspicion that the trip was hastily put together for show in time for the official signing of the free trade agreement (FTA) on June 30.
You cannot have a satisfactory inspection like this. The country will have a hard time believing the government¡¯s findings. Once again we would like to stress that the condition of imported beef is not something that should be the subject of a deal in the course of negotiating a free trade pact. It is something that could have fatal influence on the country¡¯s health. We hope the government comes to its senses if it is thinking it is okay to barter the quality standards of imported beef for economic benefit.
Please direct questions or comments to [[email protected]]
http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edit ... 20922.html
TSS
An imported-beef inspection team appointed by the government went to the United States on June 30 for a four-phase appraisal of the risks of American beef. It should be a precise process but everything from the preparation to the actual inspection made it seem as if they were just going through the motions. You worry whether they were adequately inspecting the beef for mad cow risk.
Civic groups are saying they are worried the inspection is actually just a formality ahead of deciding to import beef with bone chips. Recently there have been circumstantial indications that American beef processing centers are not engaging in proper quality management, selling beef for domestic consumption as if prepared for export, and ribs which are prohibited from being imported to Korea are coming into the country sometimes by the boxful. The government needs to invest a lot more time and people into these inspections than it has in the past.
Despite that need, the government inspection team was as unprepared as could be this time as well. Even a day before its departure it had not received a list of the foodstuff plants and slaughterhouses it was supposed to visit, and it had not decided on an itinerary. Most of those details had been determined by the U.S. government. It is only to be expected that the side being inspected is going to show the inspectors the places in the best condition. One cannot understand how the sites to be inspected and the itinerary, which naturally should have been determined by Korea, was instead decided by the Americans.
And that is not all. During the inspection which occurred prior to resuming beef imports in 2006, the delegation was composed of eleven government inspectors and two representatives from civic groups. This time eight government officials went, but the experts recommended by the National Assembly were not even issued American visas, because the government had asked it to recommend people just two days before it was time to leave. You wonder whether it had any intention of having experts from the National Assembly at all. There was also insufficient time to visit the relevant sites. There was an eight-day itinerary, but since that included holidays and American Independence Day, only four days were available for visiting actual sites for inspection. It is hard to rid yourself of the suspicion that the trip was hastily put together for show in time for the official signing of the free trade agreement (FTA) on June 30.
You cannot have a satisfactory inspection like this. The country will have a hard time believing the government¡¯s findings. Once again we would like to stress that the condition of imported beef is not something that should be the subject of a deal in the course of negotiating a free trade pact. It is something that could have fatal influence on the country¡¯s health. We hope the government comes to its senses if it is thinking it is okay to barter the quality standards of imported beef for economic benefit.
Please direct questions or comments to [[email protected]]
http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edit ... 20922.html
TSS
