[KVOLUTION]

By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
05-03-2009 18:50


Negotiators from Korea and Canada will meet this week in Geneva for consultations on the resumption of Canadian beef imports that the government had banned.

Yonhap reported Saturday that the two parties will sit down on May 7 in Geneva for consultations on the ban.

The consultation is the first step in the World Trade Organization's (WTO) settlement procedure when a dispute occurs.

On April 9, the Canadian government called on the WTO to address South Korea's ``unjustified" ban on the import of its beef, six year after Korea first halted shipments.

In a press release distributed through the Canadian Embassy in Seoul, Canadian International Trade Minister Stockwell Day said, ``We are disappointed to have to launch this action, as we had hoped to resolve or differences through negotiations.''

Day continued, ``Canada has a robust trade relationship with South Korea, so it is unfortunate that we have not been able to settle this issue and reopen South Korean markets to Canadian beef."

If the consultations fail to resolve the dispute within 60 days after the WTO received the request, Canada may request for the establishment of a panel to hear the case. The panel, consisting of three members, will undertake a confidential review of the dispute.

Statistically speaking, the dispute has a chance to be resolved in the consultation stage, as the WTO said, ``in July 2005 only about 130 cases of nearly 332 cases reached the panel stage.''

The Korean government, which acknowledges the problems facing domestic cattle farmers and suffered from public opposition to the resuming of U.S. beef imports, may not see a compromise through consultations as a possibility.

The government banned imports of Canadian beef in 2003 after Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad-cow disease, was found in Canadian cow. The ban has been in place ever since.

The Canadian government has continuously asked for a lifting of the ban, as recently as March this year, when Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz broached the subject on a visit to Korea.

Canada argues the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) classified it as a ``Controlled BSE Risk" country in 2007.

This isn't the first dispute case involving imported beef. The United States and Australia have complained to the WTO that Korea was taking protective measures against the sale of imported beef on the domestic market. Panels reviewed both of these cases.

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